


As the Bells Toll

by TwilightKnight17



Series: Hours 'Verse [11]
Category: Persona 3, Persona 4, Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Cameos, Day At The Beach, F/M, Gen, M/M, OCs - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Shenanigans, Wedding Planning, Weddings, loose interpretations of mythology, loose interpretations of obscure canon, this is such an indulgent fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-26
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2019-07-02 14:40:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 58,958
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15798612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwilightKnight17/pseuds/TwilightKnight17
Summary: It’s the wedding of the millennium! After almost seven years together, Death and the Universe are finally getting married. But with all the work just to get things planned, all the things left to explain to the Phantom Thieves, some unexpected revelations, and at least one wedding crasher, will they actually make it down the aisle?(Of course they will.)





	1. July 27th, 2017

“I see it, I see it, look!” Ann cried, hanging over the front rail of the boat.

“Where?” Akira leaned forward as well, scanning the horizon. At his side, Goro smiled, still in disbelief that any of this was happening. 

The world had settled back into a content sort of balance in the months following the restoration of the Velvet Room and the triumph of the Phantom Thieves. At first no one dared to relax. The Phantom Thieves were as fine as any of their predecessors had been in the aftermath of a crisis, but the Shadow Operatives were waiting for something, anything, to go wrong. Three straight years of low-key wondering whether the world was going to end at any moment didn’t just dissipate on-command. But eventually they accepted that peace really had come back, and could focus on happier things.

Like Minato and Ryoji finally bothering to sit down and plan their wedding, and the Thieves getting a well-deserved vacation.

Goro had never been to the beach. Once he finally had the money, he no longer had the luxury of time to relax. So the idea of spending two weeks at the Kirijo summer home on Yakushima was overwhelming and incredible. Even more so, the fact that he’d been allowed to invite all of his friends along.

The single caveat was that other members of the Shadow Operatives wanted to drop in at different times throughout the vacation, but the Thieves had collectively agreed that they could handle it. Hopefully. No one was planning to start a fight, at least, and no one was going to turn down two weeks in an island paradise just to avoid uncomfortable social interaction.

With the rest of the Thieves scattered all over the boat, watching the approaching island or reclining on the deck chairs, Minato was sprawled in his own chair beside Ryoji, being an acceptable chaperone and checking his phone messages.

**Chat: Wild Cards - Minato, Yu, Hamuko, and 3 others**

> _[Minato - 3:10pm] Land ho. We’re almost there._
> 
> _[Minato - 3:10pm] They’re still not thrilled about meeting everyone, but oh well._
> 
> _[Maki - 3:13pm] I really think it will do them good._
> 
> _[Maki - 3:13pm] As long as you don’t overwhelm them._
> 
> _[Yu - 3:15 pm] We’re not going to all show up at once._
> 
> _[Minato - 3:15pm] I wouldn’t let you anyway._
> 
> _[Yu - 3:16pm] You’re so protective of him._
> 
> _[Maya - 3:16pm] He’s a good dad._
> 
> _[Minato - 3:17pm] I’m not his dad._
> 
> _[Minato - 3:17pm] He’s been very clear that we’re not his parents, whatever Ryoji says._
> 
> _[Hamuko - 3:18pm] Can I still be his aunt even if you’re not his dad?_
> 
> _[Minato - 3:20pm] ...that’s up to him._
> 
> _[Minato - 3:23pm] I’ll let you all know which days are good to come visit._
> 
> _[Hamuko - 3:25pm] Just don’t forget you have to actually plan your wedding!!! I need details!!!!!_

Minato groaned. Just because his sister had planned her wedding successfully didn’t mean that she got to nag him to plan his. He had half a plan. That was part of why they were going to Yakushima: to scope out the location. A beach wedding was romantic, and Mitsuru had said that using the private beach was fine. But then there was the date to worry about. Minato was thinking the end of October, in-between his and Ryoji’s birthdays, but he hadn’t actually brought it up yet.

There was just so much. Flowers and food and clothes and how had Hamuko even managed all of this? He was exhausted just thinking about it.

“Holy shit is that the house?!” he heard from somewhere on the upper deck. It sounded like Ryuji, and Minato sat up and looked at where the mansion had actually come into view. He was so glad Mitsuru had let them bring the kids on vacation, because their reactions were already worth it.

***

When they walked into the front hall of the mansion, Mitsuru was waiting with two of the housekeepers. Most of the Thieves hesitated, still incredibly wary of the head of the Shadow Operatives, but Minato just waved lazily. “Hey, Mitsuru-senpai.”

“Everyone,” Mitsuru greeted. “Welcome to Yakushima. I won’t be staying, but I wanted to be here to make sure everyone got settled in. Guest rooms have been prepared for all of you; you may choose whichever you like.”

Makoto was the first of them to manage to speak, and she bowed halfway. “We’re very grateful for the opportunity to stay here. Thank you for allowing us to spend time with Goro.” There was a murmured chorus of thanks from the other Thieves, but no one else spoke up.

Mitsuru looked them all over and sighed. “You don’t have to be quite so formal,” she said. “Arisato made the suggestion to bring you all here, and it seemed like a good setting to introduce you to some of the other members of the Shadow Operatives as well. There are quite a few who are very interested to meet you. You’re not under any obligation to meet anyone, of course, nor to trust us, but it would go far in helping our two groups understand each other.”

“It’s still a vacation,” Ryoji added. “We’re supposed to have a good time.”

“I guess we can try,” Akira said, and Goro elbowed him in silent admonishment to please, _please_ play nice in front of Mitsuru.

Mitsuru didn’t seem to catch the hint of contempt in Akira’s voice, and stepped aside. “The housekeepers will show you to your rooms. Okumura-chan, I would appreciate the chance to speak with you before I leave, if you wouldn’t mind.”

“Oh. I… Very well. I’ll meet you back down here in a little while, then,” Haru said politely, masking her surprise at being singled out.

“Thank you.” Mitsuru watched them all head upstairs, then turned to Minato and Ryoji with a sigh. “It’s obvious that they still don’t like me.”

“Can’t really blame them,” Minato said with a shrug. “From their perspective, you’re just another adult that did nothing to help. Even if that’s not really true, they saw us as enemies at least for a while.”

Mitsuru frowned at him. “They don’t seem to see you two as ‘enemies’.”

Ryoji grinned sheepishly. “Well, Akira-kun’s spent time around us, and we’ve got Goro-kun to vouch for how tolerable we are. He’s happy in Iwatodai.”

“That’s good. When you two asked to take him, I knew you would be the best ones to handle the situation, but I still had my doubts,” Mitsuru admitted. “He was a variable. If he’d proven too hostile to deal with, we would have had to make other arrangements.”

“Well, it’s too late now,” Ryoji said cheerfully. “He’s ours. I’m already mentally planning his graduation party.”

That earned an inelegant snort of laughter. “Aren’t you supposed to be planning a wedding? Hamuko is close to coming down here herself and forcing you to start making decisions.”

“That’s part of why we’re here,” Minato assured her. “We’ll get the details hammered out. We’ve been putting it off long enough.”

“You certainly have.” Mitsuru gestured towards the stairs. “Your usual room is ready as well. I hope you know what you’re doing, trying to wrangle all of those kids for two weeks.”

“They’re just a slightly more wild version of us,” Minato said. “Everything will be fine.”

***

The Phantom Thieves were extremely impressed by their accommodations. The guest rooms all had queen-sized beds and beautiful furniture, and the ones on the back side of the hall all had a glorious view of the ocean.

“This is truly inspiring,” Yusuke said. He’d claimed the corner room at the end of the hall for himself, with windows on two sides and enough floor space for a painter’s tarp and an easel. “The view from this place is incredible.”

“I can’t imagine what a house like this would even cost,” Makoto said, staring up at the elegant ceiling light. “Or what staying in a hotel in a place like this would cost, either.”

Ryuji shrugged. “Lucky we get to stay here for free, then, even if it does mean we gotta be nice to the Shadow Ops. Hopefully nobody we meet is an asshole.”

Goro shook his head. “I don’t get the impression that anyone who wants to come is going to pick a fight.” He glanced at Akira, who was plastered to the window beside Morgana, and hummed thoughtfully. “Well...perhaps if Narukami-san shows up...”

“That’s the guy that cornered us by the door, right?” Morgana asked. He abandoned the window to flop into a plush reading chair instead. 

“Yes. From what Arisato-san has said, he led a team of persona-users during a crisis as well. He has the same sort of power as Akira and I, and that’s why he knew about the door.”

Akira looked like he had several things to say on that subject when he turned away from the window, but Ann intercepted him and shoved him face-first into the bed. “Do we have to worry about that _right now?_ ” she asked. “We just got here; shouldn’t we go to the beach or something?”

Their fearless leader pushed himself up so he could be heard. “We got up at the crack of dawn to get to the bullet train. Can’t we just like...unpack and do movie night? I’d be willing to take bets on whether or not there’s a movie theater in this place.”

“Ooh, good point!” Futaba said eagerly. “We can do all-day beach trip tomorrow. I brought a stash of movies. Have any of you guys seen _Winter Wars_ ?”

Most of them hadn’t, and so it was agreed that they would spend their afternoon unpacking and exploring the house, and then crash for movie night after dinner, either in a home theater if they could find it, or the room with the biggest TV if they couldn’t. While the others tried to get their rooms in order, though, Haru made her way back downstairs, where Mitsuru was still waiting in the front hall.

“You wanted to speak to me?” Haru said politely.

“I did.” Mitsuru pushed away from the column that she’d been leaning against. “We haven’t spoken since a few days after your father passed away, and I was wondering how you were doing.”

Haru didn’t meet her eyes. “As well as can be expected, I suppose. I’ve had to learn a lot about how to run the company in a very short time frame, but luckily I’ve found people on the board of directors that I can trust to help me.” There was steel in her voice when she added, “We haven’t spoken because I have refused all of your invitations, Kirijo-san. I didn’t appreciate the attempt to manipulate me with sympathy when all that you wanted was information about the Phantom Thieves.”

“My intention wasn’t to manipulate you,” Mitsuru said. “All of my sympathy was genuine. And none of what I told you about my father was a lie, though it wasn’t the whole truth.” She waited, but Haru was quiet, so she continued, “He died because of an incident with shadows as well.”

“...he did?” The question was hesitant, and Haru finally looked at her. “You said...something about a former employee?”

Mitsuru nodded. “He was murdered, because that employee was hoping to hasten the end of the world, and he tried to stop him.”

They moved to the living room when Mitsuru beckoned her to follow, and Haru listened to the abridged version of what had happened atop Tartarus on that long-ago night. When everything was told, she said softly, “You… I can understand why you wouldn't have explained more, when you weren’t sure how much we knew.”

“I can’t imagine that telling you about the time I was almost a human sacrifice would have been appropriate conversation for dinner with a stranger,” Mitsuru said with a quiet laugh. “I sincerely apologize if it came off as an attempt to manipulate you. We did want to find the Phantom Thieves, but I also saw too much of my own situation in you.”

Haru looked down at her hands folded in her lap. “Does… Does it ever get any better?” she breathed. “It...has been a long time, and it still feels as though… I know what wounds are like, and this feels like a wound that I have simply piled gauze on until I can no longer feel the pain, but it’s still there. Does that feeling ever go away? My father was not a good person, but even now, I still grieve for what might have been, had we gotten the chance to steal his heart.”

“It fades, but it doesn’t go away completely,” Mitsuru said honestly. “All we can do is carry on as best we can. My father was doing his best to right the wrongs committed by my grandfather, and I’ve chosen to continue that with my work as a Shadow Operative, to do good and to honor his memory.”

Haru nodded eagerly. “And I want to make Okumura Foods into a company that people can trust again. But will that truly be enough?”

“You already seem stronger than when we first met. It’s a noticeable difference. So I’m certain that anything you do will be plenty.”

“I’ve had a lot of support,” Haru said. “Both from the board of directors and my friends. And I finally managed to break that awful engagement to Sugimura-san. Futaba-chan found some very unpleasant things that he didn’t want to end up in the public eye.” She smiled deviously. “Ryuji-kun did offer to publicly fake-propose, but that would have caused a scandal. This way, nothing falls back on me, because he was the one to break the engagement.”

“Impeccably done,” Mitsuru said, pride in her voice. They chatted for a while longer about the overall state of Okumura Foods and made plans to meet so that Haru could learn more about business, and then Mitsuru got to her feet. “Thank you for taking time to talk to me. I didn’t want to leave our prior interactions on a sour note. I’ll be heading out now; I hope that everything goes well with the others, as well.”

“One last thing before you go, Kirijo-san?” Haru asked.

“Hm?”

“Does this mansion perhaps have a theater?”

Mitsuru laughed. “It does, actually. Let me show you where it is.”

***

And so the Phantom Thieves spent their evening on a movie marathon, piled into the home theater’s bed-like reclining seats. Half of them fell asleep like that, and had to be woken up to make it back to their rooms.

Minato and Ryoji tried valiantly to put together a chart of what was required for the wedding, but after an hour of trying to figure out if they were missing something, they gave up for the day as well. They were on vacation. It was time to relax, as long as Hamuko didn’t show up to crush their noses to the grindstone.

Everything was finally over. The world had stopped ending, everyone was safe, and things were normal at last.

They deserved this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the wedding fic! It’s time for cute beach shenanigans, wedding-planning antics, people we haven’t seen in a while, people we’ve never seen before, and _the consequences of our actions!_
> 
> [airhorn noise]
> 
> Seriously, though, we’re out of canon, so I get to drive this party bus right off the exit ramp into “i do what i want”. I hope y’all like weddings, cameos, a few OCs, and self-indulgent theoretical mush. I’m going to tentatively return to my Wednesday/Saturday update schedule, but I’ll have to see how it goes, since it’s harder to write quickly without canon as a backbone.
> 
> Next chapter: It’s a vacation. We’re going to the beach, of course. ;)


	2. July 28th, 2017

The path from the mansion down to the private beach was paved with smooth stones, and the Thieves trekked down eagerly the next morning, carrying coolers and bags of snacks and piles of beach implements that Ryoji had helped them find in a closet.

Goro, responsible for a stack of towels, watched Akira and Ryuji set up the pop-up shelter to give them some shade before his attention was drawn by the glittering water. He’d seen the ocean before, of course, but to actually be so close was something else entirely. Once the tent was up, he helped lay out the towels and beach chairs, and Makoto handed out sunscreen.

“Futaba, I really don’t care if you’re going to spend the next hour under the tent, you still have to put on sunscreen,” she sighed, and Futaba hissed like a gremlin but reluctantly grabbed the tube. Ann fussed over Morgana, making sure he had enough sunscreen even under his oversized t-shirt, and the others took turns helping get each other’s backs.

Akira swiped one of the tubes and winked at Goro, who just fixed him with a deadpan look. “We are not reenacting some cliched anime scene.”

“You don’t want to lounge on a towel while I massage sunscreen into your shoulders?” Akira pouted. “Okay, fine, but you still have to let me get your back. Sunburn hurts like a bitch.”

“Mochizuki-san did say that he got aloe gel for us if we need it,” Haru called, but Makoto, the team mom, chimed in, “That’s not an excuse to not reapply, though.”

Akira, to his credit, behaved and made sure to rub in the sunscreen without any extra touching. He barely got the cap back on the tube before Ann dragged Goro towards the water excitedly, leaving the rest of them behind. The last they heard of him was “Ann, no, that’s _cold!_ ” before his voice was lost to the roar of the waves.

“I kinda wanna play volleyball for a bit before I go in the water. Anyone else up for that?” Ryuji asked.

“I’ll play with you,” Akira and Haru said at the same time, and Ryuji grinned.

“Sweet, but we’ll need one more for even teams, then. Yo, Yusuke, play with us for a while?”

“I was planning to look for shells before the tide comes in too far. Perhaps later,” Yusuke said.

Morgana bounced over from where he’d been experimenting with sand against his bare feet. “I’ll play!”

Ryuji snorted. “You’re gonna be at a disadvantage ‘cause you’re short, but okay.”

“I’ll play on Morgana’s team; you play with Haru,” Akira said. They wrestled the net upright in the sand and took their places, and Akira was just glad that they could play volleyball without any bad memories.

Morgana, while short, was really good at setting the ball up for Akira to spike it, and while he tried to be fair and not take advantage of Haru’s lack of experience, sometimes it was really satisfying to send the ball crashing to the sand at her feet. It was cute, though, watching Ryuji show her how to hold her arms to bump the ball back, and between her and Morgana the teams were equally balanced enough that everyone had fun.

***

“So, what do you think of the beach so far?” Ann asked as she and Goro bobbed in the waves. Neither of them were putting much effort into swimming, mostly just going with the lazy currents and jumping over any taller waves that rolled into shore.

“It’s nice,” Goro replied, eyes half-lidded as he watched the sun shimmer on the surface of the water. “I’m not sure how I’d feel on a crowded beach, but this is wonderful.”

“We’ll see how you feel later when you’re trying to rinse the sand off,” Ann quipped with a giggle, but then she hummed contentedly. “This was so nice of Arisato-san and Mochizuki-san. You’re right, it’s a lot better than a big public beach. And as long as nobody’s as… uh… authoritative, as Kirijo-san, it should be fine meeting everybody. Aragaki-san seemed fine when we met her.”

“She’ll probably come at some point, if only to force them to actually work on their wedding planning,” Goro sighed. “I think they’re intending to get married here eventually, but they have nothing else done.”

“But weddings are so much work!” Ann said, scandalized.

“I’m well aware.” Goro floated over the top of a wave. “I just hope the cake is good. As for who may be showing up in these two weeks, I believe Narukami-san is coming at some point, as well as some of Arisato-san’s former teammates. And he mentioned something about adults, actual adults, older than Kirijo-san or the others.”

Ann splashed him. “We’re all here together, so we can handle it. But you have to let me help you get ready for the wedding when everything’s all set, okay? I want to do your makeup.”

“I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do it.” He splashed her back, but they were both distracted by a shriek from the beach, where Akira had hauled Haru over his shoulder and was carrying her towards the ocean.

“You’re being a sore loser!” Ryuji bellowed after him.

“She faked her top coming untied so that you could score the last point,” Akira yelled back. Makoto and Futaba were watching from the tent, wearing matching exasperated expressions, and Ann and Goro exchanged a look before splashing towards the shore. Unfortunately they didn’t make it before Akira dumped Haru into the water, but Goro caught his wrist afterwards and raised an eyebrow.

“And what, exactly, were you doing getting distracted by a girl’s top?” he said sweetly.

Akira’s eyes widened. “I was worried about her!” he said, but Goro tugged on his arm and sent him tumbling into the ocean beside Haru, who was drenched and laughing at them. Akira resurfaced a second later, shaking water from his hair and lunging for Goro’s shins. It devolved almost immediately into a half-serious wrestling match in the shallows as Ann joined in, with Ryuji and Morgana yelling encouragement from further up the beach. By the time Yusuke returned from his trip down the beach, eager to show off the unbroken sand dollar he’d found, they were soaked through and tired. It was as good a time as any to stop for a snack and a rest, and they flopped around on the towels drinking Second Maid and 1up and working on their tans.

***

Up in the house, Minato hunched over a list on the coffee table, pen in hand as Ryoji played the newest Saga of Link game on the big TV.

“Look, look, I’m going to glider off the top of this mountain,” Ryoji chimed, waving the controller.

Minato sighed, but he couldn’t help but smile at how excited his fiancé was. “That’s cool. Please don’t leave me all the way across the map when it’s my turn again, though.” He scribbled another name on the list. “Okay, so we’re inviting all the Shadow Operatives, all the Thieves, all the Velvet residents… Dojima and Nanako... We’re asking Lavenza and Nanako to be flower girls, right?”

“Right. They’re gonna be adorable,” Ryoji said, attention torn between paying attention to Minato and the enemy he was trying to lure towards a cliff. “Matching dresses, I think. Can we make Morgana the ringbearer?”

“In a small tuxedo…” Minato considered, zoning out as he tried to picture it. “If he agrees, of course.” He made a note to one side of the list. “I don’t think we’re forgetting anyone. That’s all of our close friends and family, right?”

“Unless you want to invite anyone from my side of the family,” Ryoji said offhandedly. When there was no response forthcoming, he paused the game to check on Minato. “Mina?”

Minato was frowning. “What do you mean, your side of the family? We’re not inviting your father, and your mother entering our world is exactly something we don’t want.”

“I do have other family, technically,” Ryoji laughed. “I haven’t talked to them in something like twenty years, but that’s the blink of an eye to beings like us.” Minato was still frowning, and he added, “You have met my great-grandfather, you know. We could at least invite him if you don’t want to invite any of my siblings.”

“I what.” List forgotten for the moment, Minato set the pen down, absolutely baffled. “Who on earth is your great-grandfather?”

Ryoji giggled. “We need to brush up on your mythology. The Night and Darkness were born of Chaos, who in turn was born of Linear Time. Chronos?”

Minato’s mouth fell open. “Do you mean _Zen?_ ” he said incredulously. “Zen is your great-grandfather?”

“Yep.” Ryoji watched Minato bow his head, hair covering his face, and asked casually, “Are you having an existential crisis again?”

“Last time I saw Zen, he was my age. Sorry for being a little weirded out that he has a great-grandchild.”

“Children,” Ryoji corrected. “Great-grandchildren. I’ve got a lot of siblings.” With a thoughtful hum, he added, “Probably shouldn’t invite most of them. A lot of them are kind of...well… I don’t know. I’m not sure you want the embodiment of strife or impending doom at the wedding. But my older siblings are nice, and my twin sister is...enthusiastic.”

“Twin sister,” Minato muttered.

Ryoji scooted to the other couch to pat him on the shoulder. “Sorry, I know I’ve never really mentioned my family before. It seemed kind of awkward, considering what my mother and father are like.”

“It’s okay, just...overwhelming all over again. You think you’re used to your fiancé being a living concept and then he hits you with something new.” But Minato was smiling when he looked up and leaned in for a kiss. “I’m okay with inviting Zen, and if you want to invite your siblings, go for it. Not sure how we’d get them an invitation, though…”

Ryoji shrugged. “I’ll figure it out. It’ll be interesting what they think.”

“What is your sister?” Minato asked. “Just so I can brace myself.”

“Oh, Keres is Death, too,” Ryoji said. “That’s why we’re ‘twins’. She’s ‘violent death’, though, and I’m ‘peaceful death’, so Nyx chose me to be the Appriser.”

Minato leaned in, and Ryoji’s arm settled around him as a comforting weight. They didn’t really talk about that January much. Everything had been said, discussed, and apologized for long ago, and there was nothing left now. Minato rubbed the pair of bands around his left ring finger absently. Nyx and Erebus were a constant, distant presence, lurking just beyond their combined awareness of the Great Seal, but they were safely away from daily life. And while the idea of other forces of nature showing up at his wedding made him a little wary, no matter how hypocritical that seemed when he was marrying one, if Ryoji said they were nice, he was okay with it. He trusted him unconditionally. Knowing that he was specifically ‘peaceful’ Death explained an awful lot about him, too.

“Other than Keres, it’ll probably be just Hemera and Aether. The only other one I’d want to invite would be…” But Ryoji trailed off, and Minato looked up curiously.

“Would be?” he prompted.

“Nevermind,” Ryoji said, kissing his forehead. “Changed my mind mid-thought. I’ll figure out how to get in touch with them and get them their invites once we choose what kind we’re doing.”

Minato didn’t push. Ryoji had always been honest with him. If something was wrong, he’d tell him soon enough. Instead, he reached for the list he’d been working on and noted the names Ryoji had mentioned. Hemera, Aether, Keres. He wondered what they were like. 

There was no way his life could get any weirder, no matter how many of Ryoji’s siblings he met, at least.

***

Spending all day at the beach was somehow almost as exhausting as running a Palace. Several of them had taken an inflatable raft out and battled the waves for a while. They’d all hunted shells and chased crabs. Morgana had refused to go farther than knee-deep into the ocean. Ryuji and Akira had gotten into a boogie-boarding contest to determine who could ride the waves in better, which Ryuji ended up winning after Akira lost his grip on the board and flipped over. He’d whined pathetically until Goro came over to help him clean the sand from his back and soothe the friction-burn, lying in the shallows like some kind of sad beached mermaid. Goro hated to admit that it was kind of endearing.

And so late afternoon found all of them in varying states of leisure. Futaba was googling sand-castle techniques to help Yusuke and Haru with the villa they were constructing. Makoto and Ann were working on their tans. Ryuji was playing a game on his phone. And Goro, Akira, and Morgana were asleep in the raft, oblivious to the many, many incriminating pictures that all the others had already taken of them.

It was Futaba who looked up first, something devious in her expression. “Hey, Ryuji. Is that water-ski cord still in the pile of stuff?”

Ryuji blinked. “Huh? Yeah, why?” It was the cord that you’d usually attach to the back of a speedboat, but since there was no speedboat, they’d left it in the pile of stuff.

Futaba glanced at the raft. “I’m thinking we push the raft out into the ocean and see how long it takes the sleeping nerds there to notice. But tie it to the tent so that they don’t drift out to sea.”

“Futaba!” Makoto hissed from her towel, but Ryuji was already digging for the cord with a huge grin on his face. Ann sat up, looking interested, and Haru and Yusuke were observing closely.

It took some finagling, but they got one end of the cord wrapped around and secured to the tent, and the other tied to one of the handles on the raft. Ryuji and Yusuke carefully dragged the raft down the beach, slowly and steadily, with Ann and Haru stabilizing it so there was less of a chance of waking up their sleeping victims.

Getting it adrift on the waves without splashing them awake was tricky, but somehow they managed amidst Makoto’s declarations that she refused to be part of this. And once the raft had floated out past the breakers, they lined up on the beach watching to see how long it took them to realize. Futaba even came out from the tent, wet hair bound back in a braid as she brandished her phone.

“I’ve got just the thing.”

***

Akira felt like he was floating. It was a nice feeling. Warm sun, soft towel as a pillow, his boyfriend asleep at his side and his little brother asleep on his chest… He couldn’t ask for anything more.

And then he realized there was some sort of music playing over the roar of the ocean, which was much louder than it should be, and he sat up just enough to look around at the frankly excessive amount of water surrounding him. Most of his friends were in a line on the shore, and he could feel his expression falling into a pout as he saw what they were doing.

Ann was fake-crying on Ryuji’s shoulder, Ryuji was filming the scene on his phone, Yusuke had gotten a sketchbook from somewhere, Haru had her hand over her heart, head bowed in mock sorrow, and there was music blaring from the phone Futaba was holding up. Makoto, still under the tent, was clearly pretending not to know them. Akira lifted a hand and smoothly flipped them all off, and he saw Ryuji practically double over laughing.

“Is that the _Gigantic_ theme song?” Goro muttered sleepily, and then he sat up and realized that the raft was adrift and yelped. “What the _hell_ is going on?”

“Our friends are assholes is what’s happening,” Akira said, and Morgana sat up and rubbed his eyes before letting out a screech.

_“Why are we in the middle of the ocean?!”_

Akira leaned over the side, making the raft tilt dangerously. “Not funny, guys!”

“Don’t rock the boat!” Goro snapped, grabbing at him. Morgana clutched at Goro’s arm, eyes wide with actual fear, and Goro glanced at him and then back at Akira. “There’s not room for three of us if you’re going to do that.”

“Wha--” Akira began, but Goro grabbed him by the leg and flipped him out of the raft.

“With that music playing?” Goro said deviously. “You’re supposed to go overboard so we survive, right~?”

Akira flailed for a moment before sinking beneath the water. Goro and Morgana waited for him to pop back up, but he didn’t reappear, and finally Goro leaned over worriedly. “Akira?”

With a tremendous splash, Akira burst from the water and grabbed Goro, dragging him overboard along with Morgana, who was still clinging and didn’t let go in time. They screamed as he laughed, and Goro tried to shove away as Akira wrapped his arms around him and treaded water. “Let go, you asshole, I thought you’d drowned or something!”

“I can hold my breath for pretty long,” Akira giggled, but both of them were distracted by frantic splashing behind them. Morgana was grabbing for the raft handles in panic, his head bobbing in and out of the water, and Akira paddled towards him quickly. “What’s wrong?”

Morgana was _crying_ , and Akira boosted him back into the raft and heaved himself up beside him. “Hey, hey, you’re okay, it’s okay.”

“I don’t know how to swim!” Morgana spluttered. “That’s why I haven’t gone in the water!” He was trying to be indignant, but it was pretty ineffective when there were still tears mixing with seawater on his face. Akira grabbed the towel, which miraculously hadn’t gotten launched out of the boat with the rest of them and was only slightly damp, and wrapped it around Morgana’s shoulders.

“I didn’t know,” he said. “Shit, Morgana, I’m so sorry.”

Morgana just growled, burrowing further into the towel, and Goro swam over to grab the side of the raft. “I’m sorry, as well. I didn’t think he’d flip both of us when I tossed him out.”

“It’s okay. Just be careful next time! We can’t use samarecarm out here!” He didn’t object when Akira pulled him into a very damp hug, and the raft started moving with a slight jolt as their friends started hauling it back to shore by the cord tied to the handles. Goro stayed in the water, kicking alongside it rather than risk flipping it again by trying to get back in, and when they got close enough Haru called, “What happened?”

“I tried to flip the raft as a joke and didn’t realize Morgana can’t swim,” Akira admitted, in the same tone that people normally used to confess to much more heinous crimes than a mistake.

Everyone was shocked. No one moved, and then Ann launched herself forward to grab Morgana in a tight hug. “Oh my god are you all right?!”

Futaba, looking almost as guilty as Akira, said, “It was my idea to push you guys out there. I didn’t know Morgana couldn’t swim. I’m sorry, too!”

“He has only been human for a few months, and we haven’t been to the beach since then…” Yusuke mused.

Morgana seemed perfectly okay in his hug, but it didn’t stop Akira from feeling incredibly guilty. If he’d been paying just a little less attention, Morgana could have drowned. And he was right: there was no revival spell in reality.

He startled at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder, and looked over at Haru, who smiled fondly. “Akira-kun, don’t. I know that expression,” she said. “It was an accident, and Mona-chan is fine. Please do not torment yourself over it.”

That got Morgana’s attention, and he let go of Ann to jab a finger into Akira’s stomach. “Yeah, I’m fine, really! I just got scared for a minute! So stop feeling guilty already!”

“Okay, okay,” Akira said. “I think I’ve had enough of the beach for today, though. I want to go see what Arisato-san’s making for dinner.”

There was a ripple of agreement around the group, and together they packed up all the beach supplies and started the trek back up to the house.

Morgana had said that everything was fine, but Akira was determined to figure out something nice he could do for him. Maybe he could talk Minato into doing sushi for dinner one night. Goro kept insisting that the older Wild Card was a really good cook. Maybe he could make fancy sushi, too.

Other than that first morning, he’d never felt uncomfortable around the two adults. It was weird to realize, considering how long it took him to warm up to Sojiro or any of the other adults in Tokyo. But then again, he’d literally been drawn to them as a child. Maybe all of this, like everything else, had been some sort of fate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [:D](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KolfEhV-KiA)
> 
> Self-indulgent mythology mess ahoy. XD I think I mentioned a while back that we'd technically already met one of Ryoji's family members. The others...eh. I'm having fun, and wikipedia is an absolute sinkhole of details up to interpretation.
> 
> And, obviously, a day at the beach! I think Goro and Ann would be really good friends if given the chance, so...
> 
> Next chapter: There's at least one Shadow Operative who has very strong opinions about a 'change of heart'. And there's at least one Shadow Operative's cousin who thinks the Thieves are too cool to be worried.


	3. July 30th, 2017

Four days into their stay at Yakushima, they were having breakfast when Ryoji said cheerfully, “Oh, right, some of our friends are coming today.”

The Thieves exchanged awkward glances. They’d known this was coming, but now that it was actually happening it was making them nervous.

“So who’s coming?” Futaba said, just a touch too chipper.

“Nanako, for her archery lesson. Yukari thought holding it here would kill two birds with one stone, even though Lavenza can’t make it today,” Minato said, a tiny smile on his face as Goro brightened. “Yu-kun and Marie are coming with Nanako, and Naoto-kun’s coming too. She’s very curious about the notorious Phantom Thieves.”

“When you say ‘Naoto’…” Makoto began.

“Shirogane Naoto, the Detective Princess. She’s met Goro-kun already, but she wants to meet the rest of you, too.” Ryoji winked at Goro.

“Shirogane-san is a Shadow Operative?” Ann gasped, turning to Goro as well. “You knew and you didn’t tell us?!”

“I was waiting for a dramatic reveal,” Goro countered. “You’re going to get to meet Takeba-san, too, so please try to react more calmly than I did.”

“Takeba…” Futaba began.

“...Yukari?” Akira finished. The realization hit them both at the same time, and Haru only a second later.

Goro’s smile turned smug. “Yes, Takeba Yukari, the actress that played Feather Pink Argus during Victory and Advent. Can you believe she’s actually a Shadow Operative?”

Futaba launched herself across the breakfast table. “You met Takeba Yukari and didn’t tell me?!” she shrieked, and he just barely kept the chair from tipping backwards as she landed in his lap.

“Would you have believed me?!”

Miraculously, she hadn’t knocked over any dishes, so Minato and Ryoji let them be, and Minato continued, “I know Yu-kun isn’t your favorite person, but try to be nice at least, Kurusu-kun.”

“I will if he does,” Akira said.

They were off to a great start.

***

“There’s something else you should know,” Minato said, after the breakfast dishes had been cleaned up. “Before Yu-kun and Marie get here, anyway. And it’s something else Akechi-kun already knows, but in this case I understand why he wouldn’t have told told you.”

They waited patiently for whatever bomb was about to drop, except for a very quiet _‘oh no’_ from Futaba somewhere in the middle of the group. Minato looked over the expectant faces and sighed. “I’m going to do the short version, just to save time. You can ask for more details later, but for now, the important part is: Ryoji’s Death.”

Pandemonium filled the dining room at Minato’s poor choice of wording. “What _about_ his death?” Ann demanded, at the same time that Futaba said in a horrified voice, “Is he _dying?!_ ”

“Good job,” Goro told his guardian dryly. Ryoji looked like he couldn’t decide whether he was amused or not by the misinterpretation, but was quick to try to calm them down.

“Wait, wait, no, not _my_ death. I am Death. Different grammar.”

Akira hesitated, tugging on his bangs. “A human incarnation of Death?” he asked. “The way Morgana is Hope?” It was the only explanation that made sense, even if it was a little weird to think that Death had been acting as Goro’s dad for six months. There were several black jokes to make about a murderer’s relationship with Death, but he wasn’t going to. Not in front of Goro, anyway.

Although, wait, if he was Death...

“Exactly like that,” Ryoji said cheerfully.

Most of the Thieves were making a face that Goro distinctly recognized from the first time he’d learned the truth as well. It was the sort of resigned disbelief that came with being surprised, but knowing you really shouldn’t be. They’d watched a talking cat become the embodiment of Hope and then get reborn as a human child. They’d fought a god. Death being a person was almost tame in comparison.

Akira, though, was looking a bit more off-kilter than the rest of them the longer he thought about it, and just when Goro was getting ready to ask, he blurted, “I pranked Death. I pranked Death and didn’t die.”

Ryoji clapped his hands together with a grin. “Yep!”

“You did _what?_ ” Ryuji yelled, and Akira explained briefly about that long-ago meeting in Tokyo Tower, handing off fake candy to the older Wild Card and his apparently-inhuman fiancé as a troublemaking ten-year-old.

“That’s the whole Wild Card thing, isn’t it?” he asked afterwards, looking at Minato. “Why I was drawn to you two?”

Minato nodded. “The fact you managed to elude us for so long came down to luck. If Yu, Hamuko, or I had gotten anywhere near either you or Akechi-kun, things might have ended a lot sooner, because we would’ve been able to tell what you were.”

“Narukami-san didn’t do a great job when he did finally find us, though,” Morgana pointed out.

As if summoned by his name, there was a call from the front hall, and Ryoji laughed. “Speak of the devil…” he said. “Or, I guess that’s Kurusu-kun, after that stunt at Christmas, right?” He headed for the door, and the Thieves and Minato trailed along behind him, some more reluctant than others.

There was a round of introductions as the two groups converged. Everyone had met at least one person from the other group, but it was the first time all the Thieves had been in one place together. Yu had come with Nanako, and Yukari and Naoto were pleased to see everyone. All the Thieves were caught off-guard, though, because Kujikawa Rise was apparently in town and hadn’t let Minato know that she was coming too.

She made a beeline straight for Goro and clasped his hands. “Akechi-kun, I’m so glad to see you!”

“I…” Goro began, startled. “It’s...good to see you again. I didn’t realize you were a Shadow Operative as well.”

“Yep!” Rise said. “I wish I had known when we met up that one time at the TV station. I would have tried harder to convince you to go to dinner, and you could have met Yu-senpai sooner!”

There were muttered whispers from behind him as Ann grumbled about him knowing _another_ celebrity. Haru already had a hand clamped firmly on Futaba’s shoulder, keeping her from vibrating out of her skin from being in the same room as Takeba Yukari.

Eventually all of them made their way to the training facility, an old Kirijo lab, and the others settled in to watch as Yukari and Nanako set up the archery range. Once the targets had been assembled, Yukari looked over at the rest of the group and smiled. “Goro-kun, Futaba-chan, did you want to try too?”

Futaba squealed. “Archery lessons from Feather Pink? Yes, please!” She flew out of the bleachers, and Goro followed more slowly. He would really prefer not to make a fool of himself in front of his idols, his boyfriend, and his guardians, and he’d never touched a bow before.

Yukari seemed to pick up on his anxiety, though, and said with a sly smile, “You don’t have to, if you don’t think you can handle it.”

That poked at his pride, and he strode forward with more purpose. “Of course I can. I was Robin Hood before, you know.”

Nanako stared up at him in wide-eyed amazement. “Robin Hood? Really?”

Goro offered her a beaming television smile. “That’s right. I have a different persona now, but Robin was the first.”

Nanako was delighted, and Goro felt a burst of affection for her. Something about her felt familiar to him, the same sort of familiarity that he’d gotten from Ken, as well. Perhaps it was an arcana thing; he still didn’t fully understand all of that. 

As he stepped up to the line and took aim something seemed to settle inside of him, like a piece he hadn’t realized was out of place. And it wasn’t just because he was getting archery lessons from Feather Pink herself.

This felt so much better than holding a gun ever had.

***

In their makeshift audience, Naoto looked over the rest of the Thieves. She admired them, in a way. She and her friends had dealt with the Inaba murders for a year, but there was never danger in the real world until everything was ending. These kids had dealt with mafia bosses, threats of legal action, the threat of being caught by the police, and the unforgiving will of the public. It was incredible, what they had endured.

“I’m curious,” Yusuke said, pulling his attention away from Futaba’s terrible aim to face Naoto instead. “I know that you did not step in until near the end of things, but how close were you to finding us?”

“Not nearly close enough, as it turns out. I must admit, I wasn’t expecting Akechi-kun to be a thief as well,” Naoto replied. “I knew he was in on it, of course, but I guessed he was simply an inside contact in the police. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to find proof. He’s a remarkable actor, but not perfect. The rest of you...other than Kurusu-kun, we had our suspicions, but no time to follow them to their conclusion before Shido’s calling card went live.”

“Who else did you suspect?” Makoto asked. “Obviously you were focusing on Akira because he’s the ‘wild card’, but the rest of us were trying to be careful.”

“Me,” Haru said. “At least, I can only assume that’s why Kirijo-san kept trying to contact me.”

Yu nodded. He was sitting on the far side of the group, on the opposite side from Akira, determinedly pretending that he didn’t notice Akira watching him from beneath his bangs. “I got a photo of you interacting with Kurusu-kun at the school festival. Sakura-chan was in the photo too, but we didn’t know who she was at the time, and Fuuka couldn’t find her in the school records.”

Ann laughed. “That’s because Futaba didn’t go to school this year. Thank goodness, apparently.”

“I’m sure that wouldn’t have worked out well anyway,” Marie said dryly. “You didn’t exactly do a good job following Akechi-kun or talking to Kurusu-kun, Yu.”

“Goro did mention at one point that he thought he was being watched!” Akira said. “You didn’t do anything for a year and then thought the best thing to try was stalking us? Who thought that was a good idea? Kirijo-san?”

An uneasy tension filled the space between the two Wild Cards. The Thieves were quiet, mostly waiting to see what the answer would be, until Haru piped up, “We stalked each other quite a bit as well. Remember?” She smiled at him, but Yu and Akira were frowning at each other.

“I wasn’t expecting you to run away,” Yu huffed. “I was going to tell you about the imposter in the Velvet Room, but you just took off.”

“Yu--” Minato began, but Akira interrupted.

“Then you’re not very observant, are you,” he snarked. “You should have just led with that instead of pulling that whole ‘come with me, I just wanna talk’ act. We had to go after Shido; I wasn’t risking that you were going to lock me up somewhere.”

“Right, so you could _steal his heart_ ,” Yu spat, and even his friends looked surprised by the bitterness in his tone. “What were you thinking, messing with people’s shadows like that? You could have broken someone beyond repair; you could have _killed_ someone!”

“But we _didn’t_ ,” Akira snapped back. “Are you really going to tell me we should have left those assholes alone to keep hurting people?”

“Of course not, but it’s like you never considered what you were doing!” Yu’s voice was full of barely-restrained exasperation. He ignored Marie swatting at his shoulder, trying to get him to stop. “Brainwashing people? Do you know how easy it would have been to go too far?”

“Brainwashing? Jeeze, you sound like Goro did back when he was a pain in the ass,” Ryuji groaned. “We just made those assholes admit to all the bad shit they’d done.”

Yu flinched. “Not by their own will,” he said. “I didn’t realize when it all started that you were messing directly with someone’s shadow, but that’s…” Something dark flashed across his expression, and he gestured to Naoto and Rise. “We’ve seen it. We’ve seen what it looks like, shadows being controlled, forced to act in a way they normally wouldn’t. It’s awful and I wouldn’t wish it on anyone.”

“Even the asshole that was getting away with raping his students?” Ryuji said venomously. “Even the scumbag that was having people killed to improve his business? Even _Shido?_ We weren’t controlling anybody. We were just forcing them to face what they were doing to everybody else.”

“Ryuji!” Ann grabbed his shoulder.

Rise looked down at her clasped hands awkwardly. “Was there a way to do that without stealing their heart, though? When Mitsuru-san explained how it all worked, she made it seem like you were actually taking away part of their subconscious. And that’s kind of...”

“...we didn’t steal my sister’s heart. Or Goro’s,” Makoto said. “Akira, you even said you didn’t want to steal Goro’s because you were afraid of what it would do to him.”

“That’s different!” Akira said. “Your sister and Goro weren’t bad people. Shido and his flunkies were monsters.” He glared at Yu. “Sorry that we didn’t decide to be noble about people that were hurting so many others. The regular police weren’t going to do anything, and you Shadow Operatives certainly weren’t! It’s easy for you to judge when you weren’t there!”

“Akira?” Morgana asked worriedly, as the Thieves realized that Yu and the others had inadvertently hit a nerve. “Are you okay?”

“No!” Akira said furiously. “I’m upset because he’s right. Of course he’s right, of course we shouldn’t have been ripping people’s desires out, but everything is over! Sorry that we didn’t make the greatest decisions in the moment, but I can’t stand people who butt in after the fact and start going on about what I _should_ have done. You weren’t the one in that situation, you weren’t the one with no time to figure out another way, so just leave it alone!”

“You--” Yu began, only to realize a second later that everyone had stopped doing archery and was staring at them as well.

Nanako tilted her head worriedly. “Oniichan, are you fighting?”

“...no. It’s fine, Nanako, we’re just...disagreeing about something,” Yu said quickly.

“It sounded a bit like fighting,” Goro said, and Futaba nodded behind him.

“It’s not,” Akira muttered.

“I think in this case, Kurusu-kun is right,” Naoto said. “Regardless of personal opinions, everything is over, and there are no more hearts to steal. It will be best if we look forward instead of back.”

“Hey, since Yu’s here, we should ask him about the menu we were working on,” Ryoji added, clearly trying to change the subject. “We were having trouble picking between traditional and western food. At the very least, we’re doing the big giant wedding cake.”

Yu, grateful for the distraction, agreed. “I can take a look. Are you going to get Shinjiro to cater, or…?”

“Haven’t decided yet,” Minato said, getting up and motioning Yu to follow. They disappeared into the hallway, and once they were gone Akira breathed a sigh of relief.

“Sorry,” he muttered, as the archery group climbed up into the bleachers to join them. “Didn’t exactly play nice, there.”

“Yu-senpai was being kind of unfair, too,” Rise pointed out. “Don’t feel bad, Kurusu-kun.”

“He believes in playing by the rules of the world. Most of our group does. But...circumstances don’t always allow for that,” Naoto agreed.

Goro and Nanako sat down on the bench in front of Akira, and Goro held his hand out. “Stop moping and give me your phone. I want to show Nanako-chan the photo of the Phantom Thieves and I left mine in our room.”

Akira fished it out of his pocket and handed it over. Nanako, plus the other Shadow Operatives, crowded around to look, and when Goro brought up the group picture from the ship Nanako gasped.

“You really did have magic outfits!” she said excitedly. “I used to watch Magical Detective Loveline all the time, but you’re a real magic detective! Naoto-neechan is too, I guess, but she didn’t have the outfit!” She eagerly zoomed in on the picture as Naoto muffled a snort somewhere behind her, and Yukari raised an eyebrow.

“Some of these outfits are really something,” she commented. “Kurusu-kun looks almost exactly like what most people would picture a phantom thief as, I think.”

“You didn’t see all the times he tripped over the coattails,” Futaba said deviously, and Akira groaned.

“Don’t tell them that!”

“Oh, it’s okay,” Rise assured him. “We can tell embarrassing stories about Yu-senpai, too. He ate grass once.”

The Thieves looked incredibly alarmed. “Grass…?” Makoto ventured, but Futaba just shrugged and said, “I bet Inari’s eaten worse.”

“I have certainly not.”

“He...really would eat just about anything,” Naoto said. “If it was in the fridge or one of us had cooked it, it was fair game. He ate rancid milk and questionable chocolate and curry with jello…”

“Who puts jello in curry?!” Akira demanded, horrified.

“Yukiko-neechan and Chie-neechan,” Nanako said. “And the grass was my science project.”

“He...He ate your science project?” Haru asked, and Nanako nodded solemnly.

All the Thieves exchanged worried glances. What exactly _was_ Narukami Yu? In a burst of inspiration, Ann asked quickly, “Is he like the Velvet people and didn’t know any better, or what?”

Ryoji laughed. “Oh, wow… No, Yu’s just a regular person. I’m definitely telling Elizabeth you said that, though, jeeze. None of them ever tried to eat grass. Neither did Marie, or Teddie, and I certainly didn’t. Apparently we all have more common sense than Yu.”

“Wait, is she not human either?” Futaba accused, pointing at Marie. “Today is getting really weird.”

“Teddie’s a normal shadow that managed to gain a human form,” Marie said. “And I guess I didn’t totally introduce myself. I’m Izanami.”

Silence fell in the wake of the declaration, and then Yusuke said, looking around at them all, “Is a goddess in human form truly any stranger than anything else we’ve learned just today?”

“Not _really_ , but still. Geeze,” Futaba whined.

Yukari couldn’t help but giggle at their reactions. “Ryoji, do they know about Minato being able to summon personas in the real world?”

“He can _what?!_ ” Ann screeched, as Ryoji said casually, “Just Goro-kun.”

***

There was a lot of explaining to do after that revelation, and the Thieves got a crash course in exactly what had happened back from 2009 to 2012. It left them with more appreciation for the Shadow Operatives than they’d had originally, now that they knew what they’d been through, and Akira could see Yu’s point about controlling shadows after learning what had happened at the music festival. It didn’t change the fact that they were probably going to continue to be at-odds, but at least he could say he understood the other Wild Card a little more.

By the time Yu and Minato returned, everyone had cooled off enough to shift to much happier topics. Which meant it was time to bother Yukari about Featherman for at least three Phantom Thieves.

“Okay, but was the preview last night accurate?” Futaba said, leaning forward with the starriest eyes Akira had ever seen. “Are they really gonna finally meet Gold Osprey next week?!”

“Do you really want me to spoil it?” Yukari asked with a laugh. “Wouldn’t it be better to wait and see for yourself? You’ve waited all the way to season two, what’s one more week?”

“Pleeee _eeeeease???_ ” Futaba begged. “Please tell us? Feather Osprey’s already Goro’s favorite character; you gotta give us a hint at least! Just tell us if he shows up or not!”

“Season one ended with Feather Cockatoo’s recruitment, so it stands to reason that they will obtain their final member soon,” Yusuke said reasonably.

“I was so happy when she finally joined!” Haru clapped her hands together. 

Futaba punched the air. “And when Gold Osprey joins, they’ll finally be ready to take out that Navy Vulture guy so they can get to the _real_ enemy!”

“You don’t think Navy’s going to join the good guys?” Minato asked.

“He was going to kill Feather Rockhopper with that one trap. It was down to _actual seconds_ ,” Ryoji countered. “I know we all love Black Falcon, but I don’t think he ever got that close to actually taking out one of the rangers.”

“Do we even know if Feather Vulture’s a person? He could just be a smarter version of the monsters they usually fight,” Nanako pointed out.

Akira’s eyes widened. “Oh my god what if he grows giant and they have to fight a giant ranger with the Mega Featherzord?!”

Yukari just watched all of them discuss the possibilities with a beaming smile. “Guess you’ll have to all tune in next week,” she said brightly.

“We all need to watch and make sure we have video chat and stuff set up so we can all scream in harmony,” Akira declared. “Futaba, is that a thing we can do?”

“Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?” Futaba replied smugly. “I just need everybody’s chat IDs and we can have this thing up and running with no problems. Hell, we could do it every weekend if we wanted.”

There was a rumble of agreement to that suggestion, and Yu glanced at Yukari. “You’re going to watch with us too, right?”

“Of course,” Yukari said. “I’m not going to miss that for the world. Your reactions when the twist hits are going to be _priceless_.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still hate writing big groups of people, but this went okay I think. XD Yu and Akira are never going to be best friends, but that's okay, because as long as they can understand each other at least a little, that's enough.
> 
> Nanako just thinks the Thieves are super-cool and you can bet your ass she wants to hear all the awesome stories about robbing banks and sneaking through museums and flying through space.
> 
> Bonus [Ryoji family tree](http://twilightknight17.tumblr.com/post/177636592354/) after last chapter for anyone that's curious exactly what interpretation I'm using.
> 
> Next chapter: We've got to choose two best men, or something, plus which of them gets walked down the aisle. Plus it's finally time to take responsibility for a joke from over a year ago. ;)


	4. August 4th, 2017

“Okay, we have brought you all here to finally hammer out the rest of the wedding party,” Ryoji declared grandly, looking around the room. Akira, Goro, and Morgana were sprawled on one sofa, while Minato sat quietly on the loveseat beside Ryoji. Aigis and Hamuko had claimed the other sofa, while Junpei and Labrys lounged on the floor.

They weren’t sure where the other Thieves had gone after they’d all had lunch together. Goro had mentioned Yusuke managing to talk Ann and Haru into modeling down on the beach, but that was it. Apparently he was feeling inspired to paint mermaids.

“The only reason you’re doing it now is because you’re running out of time if you want to have things done in time for October,” Hamuko scoffed. “At least you finished the guest list. Shinji’s getting the stuff in order for catering.”

“Yes, yes, sorry I’m not as efficient as you.” Minato flopped over on the chair arm, clipboard dangling from his fingers. “We asked Lavenza and Nanako if they would be flower girls and both of them agreed, so that’s done.”

Hamuko nodded. “Okay. What are you thinking for groomsmen?”

“A best man and two groomsmen each,” Ryoji said. “We can’t have a huge wedding party or nobody’s going to be left to be guests, and we’ve already had the argument about who we each get to ask.”

Junpei grinned. “Oh, come on, you have more friends than that. The wedding would take a hundred years for everyone to finish walking down the aisle if you tried to have them all, though, and we’re not all immortal concepts like _some people_.”

“We could run down the aisle to save time,” Aigis suggested, and most of them giggled at the mental image. Ryuji would run. So would Akihiko, Chie, Teddie, Maya… But no one could picture Reiji or Mitsuru or Margaret sprinting down the aisle in all their finery.

Goro, leaning into Akira’s shoulder, murmured quietly, “A smaller party means that it’s a bit more special an honor, I feel.” Akira didn’t reply, but he tightened his arm around Goro’s waist. He’d be lying if he said all this wedding planning wasn’t making him daydream. That was quite a while off, but it didn’t hurt to starting thinking about it, right?

“Aigis,” Minato said, looking over at her. “I was hoping you would be my best man. I don’t know who else I would ever want to ask.”

Aigis looked startled. “Minato-san… I’m… Of course. I am honored that you would ask me.”

“You said it was a ‘best man’, though. Is that allowed?” Labrys asked, and Hamuko laughed.

“It’s just a title,” she said. “Although I guess, yeah, technically you’d be his maid of honor.”

“Hey, I love Ai-chan, but really, you didn’t pick me, your best friend?” Junpei teased. “That hurts, Minato!”

“It’s because I wanted you,” Ryoji said. “Stand on my side instead, Junpei-kun!” He batted puppy eyes at Junpei, clasping his hands dramatically.

Junpei snorted. “Okay, nevermind, that’s fair. How much debate did that take?”

“Not nearly as much as the groomsmen,” Minato said. “That was a much longer debate, but we finally decided. I’m going to ask Akihiko and Shinjiro, and Ryoji wants Ken-kun and Akechi-kun.”

Goro sat bolt upright. “What?”

“If that’s okay with you, Goro-kun,” Ryoji said, smiling fondly. “I’d like you to, though. Ken-kun already agreed.”

“I… I will, of course, I just… You want _me_ in your wedding?”

He sounded incredulous, but Minato just met his confused gaze and said evenly, “Why would we not?”

“Awwwww,” Hamuko and Akira chorused, and Goro elbowed his boyfriend as he turned red.

Morgana was giggling, but perked up when Minato said, “Morgana, we were also hoping that you would be our ringbearer.”

“That just means I have to carry the rings down the aisle, right? I can do that.”

“Just don’t steal them. I know they’ll be shiny, but you gotta resist.” Akira leaned over and ruffled his hair.

Morgana scooted away. “I’m not going to steal the wedding rings!”

Akira grinned. “Haven’t you been picking up sea glass for the past week because it’s, and I quote, ‘colorful and shiny’, Mr. Original Phantom Thief? Rings are even shinier.”

“Hey, shut up!” Morgana looked back at Minato and Ryoji, who were trying not to laugh. “Yes, I’ll be your ringbearer. And I’ll do a better job than anyone else would!” He puffed himself up as best he could, face comically serious.

“Perfect!” Ryoji declared. “That’s the whole wedding party, then. Now there’s only a couple of things left, since Hamuko’s already decided she’s walking Minato down the aisle.”

“Hamuko and Shinji went on one of those honeymoon things. What about that?” Labrys asked.

Minato and Ryoji exchanged a look. “...we haven’t thought about that,” Minato said. “We might just stay at the dorm.”

“You do not wish to go abroad like Hamuko-san and Shinjiro-san?” Aigis tilted her head curiously.

“What happened to Italy?” Hamuko laughed. “Didn’t Ryoji want to go to Italy?”

“Please don’t stay at the dorm,” Goro said bluntly. “I don’t want to listen to that, and I’m sure Koromaru doesn’t either.”

“Pffft, you’re worried about the honeymoon?” Junpei laughed. “Try living with them in the aftermath of the end of the Dark Hour. I’m surprised Yuka-tan never locked you guys in separate rooms.”

“What does that mean?” Goro asked, looking over at his guardians, who were wearing matching guilty expressions.

“It _means_ that it took a while for what was left of Nyx’s power to ebb out of me,” Ryoji huffed. “Being the Appriser was something more than just being Death, and because of our bond it affected Minato, too. And so while that power was still part of me, it was a little intense during full moons.”

Minato actually looked a little embarrassed for the first time in Goro’s memory. “...we were seventeen,” he said, as if that explained everything.

Goro realized what they were implying exactly one and a half seconds before Akira started trying to muffle his giggles. He elbowed Akira frantically, but that just made him laugh harder, and Goro caught his mumble through his fingers over mouth.

“...like werewolves…”

Goro sincerely wanted to smother him. Minato looked ready to smother Junpei. Ryoji was Death; he would help them, right?

“Ew,” Morgana said flatly, and that was the last straw. Hamuko and Junpei lost it as well; Hamuko almost fell off the couch from how hard she was laughing. Labrys just looked baffled, and Aigis looked resigned to not understanding.

The discussion was entirely derailed, but no one seemed to mind.

***

In the room with the big TV and the game systems, Ryuji, Makoto, and Futaba had claimed the couch. Futaba had set up a second profile, and the three of them were taking turns with the Saga of Link game.

“If this hadn’t come out right before we left, I’d have my own copy,” Futaba said as they watched Makoto climb straight up the side of a bridge.

“This is so different from Ocarina of Ages,” Makoto hummed, before making a distressed noise as she ran out of stamina and promptly fell off the side of the bridge. “Oh no, wait!”

“There goes half your hearts,” Futaba teased. “At least try to absorb some knowledge from this game, too. It might save our lives again.”

Ryuji laughed. “I don’t usually play this kinda thing because I don’t like all the puzzles in the dungeons, but all the overworld parts seem fun. I dunno where we’re gonna need game knowledge, though, if we’re not running Palaces anymore.”

“It never hurts to be prepared!” Futaba declared. “We’re still Phantom Thieves, and who knows? We might needs some new tricks to outfox the Shadow Operatives one day. I mean, did you see Aigis and Labrys? They’re _robots!_ They’ve got a major advantage in tech and stuff.”

“They’re our allies now, Futaba,” Makoto reminded her. It was still strange to think they’d be allied with so many adults, especially considering that before, the only ones they could trust had been Sojiro and her sister. “We don’t have to be friends with them, but we have to at least be on good terms. Akira-kun is already prickly enough.”

“I wasn’t plannin’ on being friends,” Ryuji said. “Mochizuki and Arisato are fine, but a bunch of those others… Narukami’s just as prickly, y’know? We did what we had to.”

“And if they’re being nice because they want us to join their sneaky organization, they’ve got anot-- Makoto, wait, you left the shrine!” Futaba pointed at the TV as Makoto turned to leave the beach she’d been exploring.

“I can’t swim that far.”

“You can make ice, though! You gotta think outside the box!”

“...I forgot that part.”

“Oh my god, give me the controller!”

Ryuji lunged to stop her. “Hey, wait a minute, it was my turn next!” He managed to grab her before she could get to Makoto, getting her back on the sofa and sitting on her. “Wait your turn, Futaba.”

“Get off me, you ape!”

“Not a chance, gremlin.”

Makoto rolled her eyes, already on her way to the missed shrine. Both of them had a point, honestly. She couldn’t picture them deciding to join the Shadow Operatives anytime soon, not with the current circumstances. Hostile takeover of the Velvet Room or not, the fact of the matter was that they hadn’t been there to help, and when they finally showed up, they hadn’t really made anything better. Individually, the members seemed fine enough, but as an organization? Makoto had too many questions and concerns, and so did the rest of the Thieves. She genuinely wasn’t sure if Akira would _ever_ come around, considering one of the first things they had done was take Goro away from him.

Yes, that had turned out well, as evidenced by the fact that they were all currently happily on a beach vacation, but it was the principle of the thing.

She was distracted from continuing that train of thought as she walked into a miniboss, and from her place squished between Ryuji and the back of the couch Futaba wheezed, “That one’s got an axe! Be careful!”

“I see it, don’t worry.” Makoto leaned forward to focus, brow furrowed with concentration. There was an enemy to smash.

***

By the time Yusuke, Haru, and Ann returned from the beach, the group downstairs had finished with actual serious meetings. Junpei was teaching Morgana and Labrys to play poker, with Hamuko and Ryoji watching and occasionally offering commentary, and Minato had disappeared with Goro and Akira in tow to the kitchen. He’d been teaching Goro to cook for months, and since Akira was around, he’d been teaching him to make non-curry foods as well.

While Haru and Ann headed up to shower, Yusuke brought over his sketchbook and sat with Hamuko and Ryoji.

“Ah, poker,” he said. “I haven’t had a chance to play since Haru and I played in the Casino.”

“I remember Akechi-kun mentioning that,” Hamuko said. “He said you guys were good.”

“Perhaps I can demonstrate after Morgana and Labrys-san have reviewed the rules,” Yusuke suggested.

Ryoji beamed. “Can we see your sketches in the meantime? You guys were out there all afternoon; I’m really curious how they turned out.”

Yusuke pulled his attention from the game and opened up the sketchbook, flipping to the day’s sketches. Ryoji and Hamuko leaned in, and Hamuko’s eyes went wide. “You drew all of these? They’re incredible.” She flipped through the pages, finding carefully-rendered images of figures lounging in the waves and posing on the rocks, interpreted with tails instead of legs.

“Yusuke-kun’s brilliant,” Ryoji said. “That painting from after Christmas? Desire and Hope? I’d own it if I thought I could afford it.”

“Mochizuki-san speaks far too highly of m--what?” Yusuke blinked, confused. “You would pay fo--”

But Hamuko, still staring at the sketchbook, interrupted before he could finish the thought. “Hey, do you take commissions?”

“Commis--?” Yusuke looked increasingly dumbfounded at the pair of them offering him money all of a sudden.

“Yeah, commissions.” Hamuko smiled. “I’ve got a special request. If you’re willing, we can talk sometime.”

“Certainly. I would be happy to make time for you, Aragaki-san.” Yusuke looked overwhelmed but grateful, and Hamuko handed him back the sketchbook with a beaming smile.

“What are you up to?” Ryoji asked curiously, and Hamuko wagged a finger in his face.

“None of your business, future brother-in-law.”

Ryoji laughed. That was fine. Knowing Hamuko, he’d find out soon enough, and it was sure to be something good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Lighthearted chapter this time, featuring the return and conclusion of a stupid joke from a long time ago. Some fun and relaxation before things get a little heavier next chapter. Minato was considering asking Belladonna to walk him down the aisle, since she's sort of like his mom, but Hamuko insisted she wanted to do that instead of being his 'best man'. XD
> 
> Writing Makoto's transition from "never been in an arcade" to "really likes Gun About and definitely-not-Zelda" has been so entertaining.
> 
> Next chapter: We're taking a vacation from the vacation, just for one day, for a slightly more personal meet-and-greet. There's a few things people still need to know, and a few things that still need to be said. And the wedding still needs flowers, too. That's kind of important.


	5. August 6th, 2017

“So, uh...when are you going to tell me where we’re going?” Akira asked, pulling one foot up on the train seat. When Minato and Ryoji had asked him to come with them to help with something, he’d agreed to leave the island, but he hadn’t been expecting the train ride afterwards. Normally he’d have balked at getting on a train with anyone from the Shadow Operatives, but he liked them in particular, and he was trying to trust them.

It was only eleven in the morning, but Minato was sound asleep against Ryoji’s shoulder, and Akira didn’t blame him. Goro had kept them up half the night theorizing after Feather Gold Osprey’s grand debut on Featherman.

Ryoji flashed Akira a smile. “We’re going to Sumaru City,” he said. “Goro-kun said you’re a florist; we were hoping you could help us pick out flowers. I trust Kashihara-san, but a second opinion never hurts.”

Akira looked him dead in the eyes. He’d spent a lot of time with Akechi Goro, and a lot of time dealing with terrible adults. He could tell pretty well when someone wasn’t telling him the whole truth. “Flowers are fine,” he said. “But that’s not it, is it? Why are you really taking me to Sumaru? Because I was planning a thing with Goro this afternoon.”

Ryoji looked almost proud of him for asking. “There’s someone that wants to meet you in particular. The team before us, from a long time ago, you’ve met one of them already. Suou Katsuya. But our friend Maya-san wants to meet you as well. She was close with the prior Trickster.”

“That’s a lot to live up to,” Akira said lightly, fighting back a sudden spike of anxiety. Katsuya had been kind to him during that week Akira had been around him. He and Dojima had been one of the main reasons he’d made it to the trial without having a breakdown. They’d kept the other police from coming at him, in more ways than one. Tokyo PD wasn’t the biggest fan of the Phantom Thieves.

But other adults, ones who had known some prior Trickster that Akira knew nothing about? Igor had told him he’d done well, but someone who had actually been the Trickster’s friend, his teammate? That was another story.

But Ryoji shook his head. “She’s not expecting anything from you, Akira-kun. She just wants to meet you, and give you a chance to ask anything you’re unsure about. I know Igor can be kind of vague.”

Akira looked down at his lap. He wanted to be confident. He wanted to be _Joker_. But here in reality, he was just Kurusu Akira, and he still couldn’t shake his nervousness around powerful adults. And that included the reserve members of the Shadow Operatives. “I just...hope she’s not like Narukami-san.”

“She won’t be,” Ryoji assured him. “I promise. The only thing is, Kashihara-san and his friends, they’re close to us, but they don’t know everything. So just don’t mention personas or anything around him.”

“I can do that,” Akira said. “But only because I don’t want to upset my boyfriend’s dads.”

Ryoji laughed. “I won’t tell Goro-kun you said that.”

***

When they got off the train, the little group headed for the Rengedai ward, where there was a branch of the Rafflesia flower shop near a perfume store and a sushi restaurant. It was significantly fancier than the shop in Tokyo, and when Akira asked, Minato said casually, “Supposedly, it used to be a very stuffy clock shop. Now it’s one of the major Rafflesia stores.”

Akira was already wandering off to look around in awe. There was a much greater variety of flowers than there was in Hanasaki’s shop, and as he rounded a corner he spied an entire aisle of every color and type of rose he could imagine. Already mentally calculating how much money he’d brought with him, he hurried back to Minato and Ryoji, only to stop dead at the sight of them talking to a man with dark hair and eyes that looked a bit like Yusuke. But it wasn’t the resemblance to his friend that had made him stop, it was the fact that he _recognized_ him.

“Oh,” the man said, turning those dark eyes on Akira. “Is this him?”

“Yes, this is him,” Minato said. “Kurusu-kun, this is Kashihara Jun. He’s our resident flower expert. Jun-san, this is Kurusu Akira.”

“Our son’s boyfriend,” Ryoji chimed in, and Minato rolled his eyes.

“He’s not formally adopted and he gets mad when Ryoji says that in front of him...but yes, pretty much.”

Jun hid a smile and turned to Akira. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Minato-san and Ryoji-san said that you work part-time as a florist?”

“It’s _you_ ,” Akira blurted. He couldn’t help it; the sheer coincidence of it was overwhelming.

“Me? I’m afraid I don’t…” But Jun trailed off, looking him over intently, and then his eyes widened. “Were you here for a festival when you were younger?”

Akira nodded eagerly. “You had a table with flowers, and you gave me some. But… my dad…” He went quiet, remembering why the incident probably stuck out in Jun’s memory.

Jun, however, smiled. “Well, then,” he said softly. “Are you happy?”

_White jasmine for joy,_ Akira thought, and smiled. “Yeah, I am. And I’m glad I got to see you again.” Jun gave him a similar feeling to Minato and Yu, but that was something to ask about later.

Jun turned his attention to Minato and Ryoji, asking about color schemes. Blues and violets, apparently, along with gold accents, and Akira wondered if there were enough kinds of blue flowers to make up a proper bouquet. Jun was already heading down an aisle, though, and the trio trailed behind him, waiting to see what he would say.

“Blue asters symbolize love,” Jun explained, pointing at a flower with many skinny petals. “And then, perhaps…”

“Forget-me-nots. For true love, too,” Akira chimed in, and Jun nodded.

“Yes, those are perfect for a blue color scheme. And while I think any sort of gold flower will be too sharp against the blues, bridal roses come in lighter yellows and pinks and will make a good contrast.” He walked them over to the rose aisle, and Minato pulled a few soft yellow bridal roses from their container.

“These smell nice,” he said. “They’ll work with the blue in the forget-me-nots, too. What do these mean?”

“Happy marriage,” Akira quipped. “Of course.”

“It still needs a neutral, though, doesn’t it? We’ve got to have at least one thing white at this wedding,” Ryoji said, grinning.

Jun and Akira exchanged a look. On the same wavelength, they said in unison, “White jasmine.”

Minato and Ryoji just stared, completely dumbfounded, as the two flower enthusiasts started laughing. The cashier, who’d been keeping an eye on them, was trying very hard not to laugh at them as well, and eventually managed to come around and help them assemble a bouquet so they could see for themselves what all the flowers looked like together.

***

After a lot of deliberation on how many roses were enough to balance out the blues, and how much jasmine they needed for accents, they settled on designs for the arrangements at the altar, the centerpieces for the reception, and the flowers for everyone in the wedding party to wear. Minato agreed to a bouquet as part of the altar decorations only for the purpose of throwing it at the reception, and Akira was already plotting to jump for it.

After they said their goodbyes to Jun and started on their way across the city to the Yumezaki ward, he finally asked curiously, “So...why did Kashihara-san give me the same feeling that you and Narukami-san do? You said he didn’t know anything about personas.”

“He doesn’t,” Minato explained. “He has Wild Card potential, but he’s never awakened to it. Maya-san will be able to explain better when you meet her, because it has to do with the crisis back in 1999.”

“Oh,” Akira said. He knew about the incidents that the Shadow Operatives had dealt with all those years ago, but he hadn’t realized that there were things even farther back. It made sense, but… There was something very strange about how unwilling they were to elaborate without Maya. Something very bad had happened. Something worse than the world almost ending in the Fall.

As it turned out, Yumezaki was only a stop along the way to pick up takeout from somewhere called Peace Diner, which Minato claimed had better food than Big Bang Burger by miles. After that it was off to Konan to actually meet Maya. The apartment building was called Lunar Palace, which Akira thought was a bit dramatic, but the woman who answered the door greeted them with a big smile.

“I’m Amano Maya,” she said, leading them into the living room, where Katsuya was sitting on the couch. “You must be Akira-kun, right?” Katsuya’s told me a bit about you, but not much. I really want to hear all about your heists!”

Meeting an actual adult with even more enthusiasm than Ryoji was strange, but Akira found himself settling in and helping pass the food around. “What do you want to know?” he asked. “I told Suou-san a lot during the investigation.”

“Yeah, but that’s all the boring technical stuff,” Maya said. “Info for the investigation. I want the juicy stuff. The fun stuff!”

“That’s your inner journalist talking,” Katsuya said.

“Well, of course! Even though I’m chief editor now, you never forget the fun of hunting down a story!”

“We’re interested, too,” Minato admitted. “Akechi-kun could only tell us about a few of your heists, and even then, he didn’t elaborate much.”

Akira smiled. “So you want to hear about the costumes and the silly stuff, like the money pool?”

“Yes, exactly that!” Maya said eagerly, and Akira laughed.

“Well...the Castle wasn’t that exciting other than the new outfits.” He fished out his phone to look up the group picture, and handed it over to Maya and Katsuya.

“Oh my god look at all of you!” Maya said excitedly. “Damn, who’s the biker chick? I’d wear that in a heartbeat.”

“That’s Makoto,” Akira said. “Her persona, Johanna, was a motorcycle. She joined us for the Bank heist, but the Museum was before that. We got to jump into paintings.”

“Like portals?” Maya gasped, and Katsuya looked intrigued.

“I can see why you left that sort of thing out of the official report,” he said.

Akira smirked. “Would have been kind of hard to get them to take me seriously if I was babbling about magic paintings and swimming in pools of money. Oh, hey, Arisato-san, did Goro mention the code names?”

“He did,” Minato began, and Ryoji chimed in, “He wouldn’t tell us what they were, though!”

“His isn’t even that bad,” Akira scoffed, rolling his eyes. “He was Crow at first, but he switched it to Ace later. Makoto’s was Queen. Mine was Joker...” Before he could keep reciting them, he realized Maya and Katsuya were staring at him strangely. “...what?”

“Joker was, um…” Maya said awkwardly. “Oops. Looks like we’re going to have to get into the crisis stuff sooner than I was expecting.” She sat back against the couch, folding her arms. “You’re the Trickster, right? The last Trickster was Suou Tatsuya, though we didn’t know that’s what he was until later, and his foe in the ‘game’, like I’m guessing Akechi-kun was for you, went by the name Joker.”

Akira took a sharp breath. There was too much similarity there to be a coincidence, wasn’t there? A game, a Joker… even though it seemed that the prior Joker hadn’t been on the ‘good’ side. There were so many things he could ask, so many potential parallels to consider, but he set those aside in favor of a slightly more immediate concern. Looking right at Katsuya, he asked, “Isn’t that your brother? Kashihara-san’s husband?”

Katsuya looked away. “Not exactly.”

Within five minutes of the start of the explanation, Akira understood why they’d waited until Maya and Katsuya were around for backup before trying to tell the story in its entirety. It was one startling revelation after another, not the least of which being that, while the first persona-user he’d ever met had been Minato, the second was the former Joker, because Kashihara Jun, the kind man who had inspired Akira’s love of flowers, was one half of the prior ‘game’. But even that wasn’t simple, because there had been another Joker after the world _ended_ , and he had been killed by Suou Tatsuya during the crisis.

“So this Philemon person is humanity’s goodness, and he’s the one that blesses Wild Cards?” Akira asked, once the story was over almost an hour later.

Katsuya nodded. “Philemon...believed in humanity’s capability for good. He trusted that the people he picked would be strong enough to overcome the Crawling Chaos’s schemes, and the situations that came later, too.”

“And he created the Velvet Room?”

“Yes.”

Akira scowled. “So he’s one of the most powerful beings, and he didn’t even bother to stop Yaldabaoth from impersonating Igor and wrecking one of his own creations?”

None of the four adults would look at him. Akira felt himself get even more infuriated at the lack of an answer. “How is that any different than what Yaldabaoth did, using us?” he demanded. “Yeah, Philemon did it to save people, but still!”

“Philemon is complicated,” Maya said eventually. “He operates under rules we don’t completely understand. We...don’t know why he wouldn’t have stepped in, and at this point there’s no reason to ask.”

Minato said nothing. He had his own opinions of Philemon. Mostly the fact that, Philemon’s blessing or not, he would have died to stop Nyx if he hadn’t managed a miracle. And that apparently had been his destiny. For the greater good, of course, but that wasn’t much consolation to the intended sacrifice. “We don’t worry about Philemon. We’ve handled everything on our own, all this time, and it’s been hard. But the other attendants help us, and we’ve managed to keep everyone safe since then.”

“It’s basically like...he can’t act because he and the Crawling Chaos are in a stalemate,” Ryoji said. “Or a truce, sort of. That’s the way we understand it. Neither of them interfere directly, only through proxies.”

“So the Velvet Room is Philemon’s proxy,” Akira confirmed. “Helping us. What’s the proxy for the other side, then?”

Minato smiled wryly. “You’ve seen it. The Reaper exists as the Crawling Chaos’s proxy, modeled after the Joker that was his last pawn, to destroy people that are careless enough to let it catch them.”

It was so much to take in at once. Akira sat there for a long time, sorting through everything, and they gave him space, chatting quietly in the background about how flower-hunting had gone and how the vacation was going. But finally Akira blurted, “That’s still wrong, because we ran into the Reaper. Why was one proxy taken out of the ‘game’ but not the other? I know it was rigged by Yaldabaoth, but Philemon should have--”

“We don’t know, Akira-kun,” Maya interrupted. “We really don’t. No one has seen him to ask, and no one would. He might be the embodiment of humanity’s capability for goodness, but...goodness can be subjective.”

Akira bit his lip. “...I guess.”

Minato patted him on the shoulder, and the conversation drifted back to Palaces and their fantastical landscapes. Outer space and glittering casino halls and a ship sailing the end of the world… Maya and Katsuya were fascinated, and Akira found it easier and easier to keep talking, realizing that these adults weren’t going to judge or scold. Maya was especially excited to see the picture of Akira and Goro after Goro had been turned into a mouse.

When it was finally time to leave, they detoured back to the flower shop one last time before boarding the train. There was still plenty of time for his outing with Goro, and Akira was wondering how everyone else’s day had gone, since Minato and Ryoji had explained that they’d left some other visitors in charge for the day.

It seemed to take no time at all to get back to Yakushima, compared to how long it had taken to get to Sumaru, and as they walked up from the docks Akira spotted Goro sitting on the front steps with someone else he recognized. “Officer Sanada?”

Akihiko grinned. “Oh, hey, you’re back. How’d it go?”

“Good,” Minato replied. “How were things on your end?”

“Chie raced Sakamoto-kun and the smaller Kurusu-kun down the beach and all of them wiped out the second they got back,” Akihiko laughed. “I think they’re napping. The others have been pretty quiet, and Akechi-kun and I have been swapping police stories. It’s good to see you again, too, Kurusu-kun.”

“You know each other?” Goro asked.

Akira smiled sheepishly. “I met him during the trial. He testified about seeing the Casino.”

Akihiko nodded. “I’ve never had my jobs intersect like that before. The weird part was that everyone else was so ready to believe it was some kind of trick you guys had pulled. No one was really worried about the whole courthouse turning into a casino.”

“It’s easier to pretend, for sanity’s sake,” Goro said, and Akira glanced at the backpack sitting beside him.

“What’s that?”

“You’re back awfully late,” Goro said, his smile smug as Akira’s eyes widened at the familiar quip. “If we’re still hiking up to the waterfall, I packed food.” His smile faded a little, and he looked down. “I...don’t get to cook for you much.”

Akira felt himself turning red, and Minato and Ryoji thankfully grabbed Akihiko and ushered him inside so they could talk. Goro waited until the door had closed, before adding, “Don’t think I don’t see you holding your hand behind your back, too.”

That dragged him back to his senses, and Akira stepped forward to pull a blue rose from behind his back with a flourish. “For you~”

Goro accepted it, his expression turning thoughtful. “What does this one mean? ‘Fake’?”

“Of course not,” Akira chastised him, dipping to kiss his cheek. “It doesn’t have a formal meaning, but I like to think of it as ‘impossible’. I’m feeling sappy after all those wedding flowers, and you’re pretty impossible, you know.”

“Oh, be quiet.” Goro turned pink, pushing him back, but there was no actual irritation in his voice. “Go change so we can go. There’s only a few days of this vacation left.”

“All right, all right, I’ll be right back,” Akira laughed.

Goro glanced over his shoulder as Akira headed for the door. “And if you do something stupid in your sappy state while we’re up there, like proposing, I’m pushing you over the falls.”

“Whatever you say, honey~”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life happened and we skipped a day, but now it’s Wednesday and it’s always a good day to remember that Philemon is pretty punchable. ;)
> 
> I had a [moment](http://twilightknight17.tumblr.com/post/177920218414) of freaking out over how similar the ‘games’ are, and ended up digging my blowtorch out from where I left it lying around in the Theatre. All of this is just my interpretations of stuff, but it sounds reasonable enough in my head. Although I feel a little bit bad because I’m probably confusing all the non-P2 readers again. XD
> 
> Next chapter: It’s only good manners to let your parents know that you’re getting married, even if you haven’t spoken in seven years. They might have something to say about that, y’know? Or about things in general.
> 
> (I really don’t want to have to skip another weekend, but we’re potentially in the area that Hurricane Florence is bearing down on, so hopefully we’ve still got power when the time comes. I think my mom is being overly paranoid about the whole thing and we're just going to get a shitton of rain, but I guess you never know. Whatever. X'D)


	6. August 23rd, 2017

They never quite missed the Velvet attendants’ ability to open doors across the Sea of Souls until they had to get by without it. Ryoji knew which door from the Velvet Room to the Sea would put him close enough to his destination, but it was still a very long walk, and he wasn’t sure if this was even a good idea or not.

You were supposed to let your parents know you were getting married, right? Sure, he was trying to shove all of his relations into the empty framework of a human family, but it came down to the same thing. He was mostly human, after all, it made sense to think of things in that way. His ‘biological’ family and his adopted family, and the new one he was building for himself.

Not that everyone appreciated the use of that framework. Other than Goro’s insistence that they weren’t his parents, Igor had looked like he was about to have a stroke the one time that Ryoji had tried to follow the thread to its logical conclusion.

_“So technically we could say that on this side of the family you’re kind of like my gra--”_

_“I would suggest that you abandon that train of thought.”_

In any case, he had plenty of family now. Though there was one thing still nagging at him, which was part of why he was making this trip out. Erebus was dangerous, yes, but Erebus also knew who he was, and that killing him wouldn’t break the Seal. So he would be perfectly safe.

The Seal came into view first, towering and endless, and Ryoji kept going. The Door resolved itself next, the golden statue that formed the lock strange to see. He’d never seen it from the outside, and the effigy of him and Minato wrapped in thorns and chains was vaguely eerie. It was the eyes, shiny and blank, that were the worst part. But they only held his attention until there was a snarl from behind him, and he knew Erebus had arrived.

Ryoji hesitated, swallowing hard, and turned to face the growling beast.

“Hey, dad,” he said with cheer he didn’t feel. “Long time no see.”

Erebus snarled, prowling close and leaning down to look at him with both monstrous faces. Ryoji did his best not to flinch.

“Look,” he began. “I know you’re not proud of me or anything, and I know you probably don’t care at all what I’m up to. But I wanted to talk anyway.” He waited to see if any kind of response was forthcoming, and when there was nothing, he grinned crookedly. If he had to run, Moonless Gown would hold Erebus off long enough to get away. “Mina’s doing well. I know you probably wish he wasn’t, but he is. We’re getting married. It’s going to be fun, actually. We’re inviting Hemera and Aether and Keres, and probably Thalassa, too.”

He wasn’t expecting a response, but he got one anyway, to his shock.

**You are not human. Why do you play at this life?**

Ryoji laughed weakly. “I am right now, though. And you know? I really think it’s been a benefit. A human lifetime is nothing to someone like us, but to spend just one with him, to have all of these feelings and experiences… We can understand them better. We only exist because of them, after all.” He looked down, tapping his foot and watching the surface of the Sea ripple, distorting the stars. “And...I’m happy. I’m happier than I ever remember being. And I love my friends, and the Velvet attendants...all of them.”

If he hadn’t been expecting Erebus to speak to him, he _really_ wasn’t expecting what he heard next. He didn’t know if her voice was reaching through the Seal, or if he was hearing it from within the Seal itself, but hearing his mother’s voice after all this time sent a ripple of unease down his spine.

_**If you choose to live among them, we cannot prevent you. But consider who those you regard as family serve. If we exist because of them, so does he, and we are all capable of deceit.** _

Ryoji hesitated. “...what are you saying?”

_**I may be sealed, but I am not unaware. Your Igor has kept his share of secrets. But if you don’t care to ask, that is your choice, Thanatos.** _

He’d had a nagging feeling since Yakushima that there was something Igor hadn’t told him, but if Nyx was using it to needle him, that feeling was probably right. “It’s not that I don’t care to ask. I wanted to try asking you first. We’re your kids, after all. But you brought it up first, and that basically confirms it. Go back to sleep, mother. I’ll handle it. And don’t expect to hear from me again.”

He didn’t get a response from Nyx or Erebus, but he didn’t expect to after a declaration like that. They let him walk away, apparently knowing that he wouldn’t change his mind, and he braced himself for the hike back across the Sea. Minato was going to wonder where he had been, and then...he had a very particular question for the Master of the Velvet Room.

***

Akira was woken up at a perfectly-respectable-for-summer time of ten in the morning by Morgana launching across the attic and getting sick in his trash can. After Morgana had come back as an actual kid, Akira and Sojiro had cleaned up the other part of the attic, relocating the extra coffee beans and rearranging shelves to make room for a bed and give Morgana his own space. They were proper roommates now, and Morgana even had his own shelf of mementos, as he built new memories of spending time with everyone.

It took Akira a second to process what was happening, but then he was out of bed, combing Morgana’s hair back from his face and rubbing his back gently. “Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay.”

“I changed my mind,” Morgana complained weakly, once Akira helped him wipe his mouth. “I don’t like this. I don’t wanna be a human anymore.”

Akira touched his wrist to Morgana’s forehead. “You’ve got a fever. We should probably go see Takemi, in case this is the flu or something.”

“I just wanna go back to bed,” Morgana said, leaning into him, and Akira ruffled his hair.

“It’s not that far. I can carry you.”

Even sick, Morgana rejected the idea, so Akira got him dressed and got a flu mask on him, bringing a plastic bag in case he got sick again, and walked him down the street to Takemi’s clinic after a brief explanation to Sojiro. Takemi was sitting behind the reception desk, head in hand, though she perked up when she saw them come in.

“You don’t usually come by in the mornings, guinea pig,” she observed, but then her eyes zeroed in on Morgana. “Oh dear. I guess you want me to take a look.”

For all her brusqueness sometimes, Takemi was really the perfect doctor, and all the Thieves knew it. She was more than understanding about Akira’s post-November aversion to needles, was willing to answer any question Makoto could think to ask, and put up with Yusuke’s abstract tangents when she was just trying to check his blood pressure. She ushered Morgana onto the exam table and started checking him over. 

“Open your mouth, hamster,” she said, brandishing a thermometer. Once it was safely under his tongue, she glanced at Akira. “So, how was your vacation? I haven’t gotten to see you since you got home.”

Akira grinned, sitting down on the table beside Morgana and regaling her with tales of the grand mansion on Yakushima while she finished her exam. He talked about the video game tournaments and days on the beach, the incredible watercolor series Yusuke had done of the ocean, the chances they’d gotten to meet celebrities. He talked about getting to spend two whole weeks with Goro, having a picnic at the top of a waterfall and flipping them out of a raft. Everyone had enjoyed themselves, and it had been a wonderful trip.

“It’s good to hear that the songbird is doing well. Make sure he comes in for a checkup next time he’s in town,” Takemi said, making a note in Morgana’s file. “Oh, and tell the puppy that the new knee brace he ordered came in. He can come pick it up when he feels like it; I have it back in the office.”

Akira nodded, a grin tugging at his lips. “Sure thing, Takemi-sensei. But uh, when did you start referring to everyone else as animals, too? I thought you said you weren’t a vet.” She’d refused to look at Morgana at all before he turned human, even though Akira insisted he was just a human in a cat body.

“I don’t know,” Takemi replied smoothly. “When did a bunch of teenagers decide I was their primary care doctor, guinea pig?”

“When we realized you were the best,” Akira countered. “Of course.”

Takemi smiled. “Flattery will get you everywhere, I suppose. Thankfully, this just seems to be a normal stomach bug. It should run itself out in about 24 hours. Make sure he stays hydrated; ice chips are good for that. And keep an eye on his fever. If it gets any higher or this isn’t better by tomorrow evening, bring him back and we’ll do some more thorough tests.”

“I will. Thank you.”

“I don’t understand why I’m a hamster, though,” Morgana whined, slumped against Akira’s side. “You could at least call me a cat. I’m used to that.”

“You’re small and look like him. Hamsters are like small guinea pigs,” Takemi said simply.

Morgana groaned at a surprisingly energetic volume, considering his ill state, and Akira patted his head. “C’mon. I’ll give you a piggyback ride back to Leblanc if you promise not to throw up on me.”

“Shut up!”

With a final thanks to Takemi, he got Morgana back home and up the stairs without contaminating the cafe, tucking him into bed with a cup of ice chips and a bucket in easy reach. “What do you think, Morgana? I think we spend the day continuing the Featherman marathon. We’re almost done with Neo; we can start the season with Takeba-san soon if we get through the rest.”

“Will you do video chat with Goro so he can do all the trivia?” Morgana asked, and Akira nodded.

“Yeah, let me move the TV and get some pillows for me, and then I’ll see if he picks up.” Akira, having always been an only child, hadn’t been sure in the beginning how having a younger sibling was going to go. But as he set everything up for Featherman and fussing over Morgana, he couldn’t help but think that this was exactly how things were supposed to be.

***

Ryoji had been fully intending to speak to Minato before trying to confront Igor, but the Master of the Velvet Room was sitting at his desk when Ryoji walked past the door to his study, and he’d changed directions and veered inside before he’d made a conscious decision to do so.

“What did you do?” he asked quietly. He had a feeling Igor already knew what he wanted to know.

He was basically proven right when Igor just stared at him, his expression unnervingly neutral. “You will have to be more specific if you wish proper answers, Death Incarnate.”

“You know exactly what I mean.” Ryoji walked right up to the desk, bracing both hands on it and leaning forward. “Morgana.”

“Yes? What about Morgana?” The Master of the Velvet Room smiled, which just infuriated Ryoji.

“Morgana isn’t like your attendants. You didn’t create him. You just woke him up,” he accused. Igor said nothing, and he continued, “He was weak because of everything humanity has been through in the past two decades, so he isn’t fully awake, but I can tell now. I wasn’t expecting you to do something like this, or I would have recognized my baby brother sooner.”

Igor gestured to a chair, then steepled his fingers as Ryoji reluctantly took a seat. “You understand how dire the situation was, I hope?” he said, and Ryoji nodded. “Then you will understand why I acted out of desperation. I did not have the time to create a guide from scratch, so I reached for what remained of humanity’s Hope and woke him as best I could. I saw how much good your presence did for our Universe, and wished to provide the Trickster the same advantage if I could.”

Ryoji sighed. “What am I supposed to do, then? He doesn’t remember anything about it, and he doesn’t even have his proper persona. But he’s happy, so…”

“If you are asking for advice, I would leave things be,” Igor said, an edge to his smile. “Things are stable right now, are they not? He may remember in time, but as you said, he is happy now, in the moment.”

“...is something wrong?” Ryoji had spent a lot of time around Igor in the past seven years. Igor was as opaque as a brick wall most of the time, always with a smile for all of them unless Elizabeth or Theodore had done something particularly egregious. But something in his manner now was giving Ryoji an odd feeling. “You seem...anxious?”

Igor straightened up, his gaze piercing. “There is no point in anxiety. Things will fall as they may. What matters is what everyone does in the aftermath.”

Ryoji swallowed hard. “But something is going to happen.”

“You both agreed to take responsibility for your actions,” Igor said. “That is all.”

***

Minato was curious where he’d been, when he got back to the dorm. Ryoji genuinely didn’t know what to tell him, at this point. But he settled for a simple, “Morgana is my younger brother.”

“What,” Minato said, immediately distracted from the book he was reading. “What do you mean?”

“I think I figured, for a while, that he was Hope the same way as Yu. As a player himself. But no, he’s actually Hope. His real name is Elpis.” Ryoji flopped down on the sofa beside him. “He doesn’t remember like I do, obviously. And Igor said it would probably be best to leave it that way unless he remembers on his own.”

Minato sat up and stretched. “He’s happy, at least.”

“That’s what Igor said. And…” Ryoji hesitated. Was it worth it to mention Igor’s last cryptic comments? He really didn’t want to stress Minato out before the wedding. “He just reminded me that we agreed to take responsibility for our actions.”

“Of course we did.” Minato yawned. “We’re the Great Seal. We have more responsibility than anyone. What does that have to do with Elpis?”

Ryoji sighed. “I don’t know. It is Igor, after all. He speaks almost exclusively in foreshadowing that won’t make sense until afterwards.”

Minato leaned over and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Whatever happens, we’ll deal with it. We always do. But the worst I can picture right now is a wedding-crasher.” He smiled. “By the way, Shinji sent over a bunch of cake samples. Feel up to taste-testing twenty-something cupcakes?”

What could possibly be more appealing than taste-testing cake with his fiancé? Ryoji pushed aside his lingering uncertainty and nodded. Minato was right, of course. They would deal with it. They always did.

When Igor finally decided to give them something to go off of, they would be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's anime episode cleared my skin, watered my crops, made the sun come out, etc. ^_^
> 
> Anyway. More self-indulgence. I think Nyx and Erebus are at least a little aware of what's going on around them (and I think Erebus isn't just a mindless beast), so indulge me for just a chapter. They wouldn't talk to anyone but Ryoji, anyway. And I just wanted some fluff with Morgana and Akira. Parallels!
> 
> Next chapter: It's time for the wedding! It's time to meet new people! Walk down the aisle! Exchange vows! Yeah!


	7. October 21st, 2017 (1)

Time passed quickly leading up to the big day. Work and school and regular life and planning blended together until, before anyone knew it, the date had crept up on them, and everyone made their way back to Yakushima.

Perks of being friends with a minor land goddess meant that the weather was always a phone call away from being better, and Marie went a few days early to ensure that any errant clouds were driven away. Flowers were delivered, food was prepped, decorations were assembled, and by the time Saturday morning dawned, all that was left was for everyone to get dressed. The altar down on the beach was a work of art with Yusuke and Haru’s help, with flowers cascading down across the sand, and all the chairs facing it and the sea on either side of the ribbon-lined aisle were assembled in neat rows.

Set up in opposite wings of the house, the wedding party was getting ready with, thankfully, a minimum amount of fussing. On Minato’s side, Hamuko tried in vain to comb his bangs back from his eyes, before eventually just sighing and making sure they were smooth. “Doing all right? You’re awfully quiet.”

“I’m fine... Were you nervous, at your wedding?” Minato fidgeted with the buttons on his royal-blue vest. Ryoji was wearing the traditional tux, with a yellow cummerbund and carefully-pressed shirt. Minato had opted for the vest and tailed jacket combo, in what Hamuko described as a ‘mock train’ since she hadn’t been able to convince him to wear a dress.

“Sure I was. It’s a big, important thing, of course you’re gonna be nervous.” Hamuko gave his hair one last brush and stepped back, holding up her fingers like a frame. “Perfect! Just don’t shake your head too hard and you’ll look amazing.”

“It’s not the biggest thing I’ve ever done, though,” Minato objected, but when he looked in the mirror he did have to admit that he looked pretty sharp.

Hamuko leaned a hand on her hip and frowned at him. “Minato. For fuck’s sake. If you think that facing down Nyx means you’re not allowed to be nervous about anything else ever again, that’s stupid and you need to stop. This is a major life event, you idiot!”

Minato muffled a laugh. “Cursing in that fancy dress doesn’t suit you,” he teased, moving to give her a hug. Her dress wasn’t _that_ fancy; it was calf-length and black, with a flared skirt and gold embroidery, but it was the spirit of the thing, and it was worth the disgruntled noise she made in his ear. “Thanks, though. I know it’s a big deal, I just… Well, you get it. I never really thought I’d get here. I’ve been winging things for seven years.”

“You made it,” Hamuko said fondly, and Minato bit his lip. Yeah, he had. Against all odds, against everything fate had tried to throw at him...he’d made it.

Shinjiro, Akihiko, and Aigis peered in. Akihiko was brandishing the boutonniere that still needed to be pinned to Minato’s jacket. The boys were in black suits, with white shirts and blue ties that matched Minato’s vest, and Aigis was in a lighter blue dress. At their heels, Morgana peered into the room, wearing a small suit in black and a blue vest with gold embroidery.

“Are you ready, Minato-san?” Aigis asked. Minato nodded, and she watched Akihiko pin the flowers to his jacket. “I could not have imagined you marrying Ryoji-san all those years ago. I would have done my best to prevent it, in fact. But I am happy that you are happy.”

“Thank you, Aigis.” He hugged her, too, careful not to muss her dress. “I guess we should go, then. We have to be ready to start.”

Shinjiro clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t stress too much. You’re gonna be fine. Worst you can do is mess up the vows.”

“He won’t mess up the vows. Don’t jinx him,” Akihiko retorted.

“I wasn’t trying to jinx him, I was just saying!” Shinjiro huffed and waved to Morgana. “C’mon, let’s go get the rings.” They walked away from a spluttering Akihiko, and Minato glanced at Hamuko and Aigis with a smile before following.

***

In the other wing, Ann, dressed in a sleeveless red gown and honestly making them all look frumpy in comparison, was putting the finishing touches on Goro’s makeup. She hadn’t been kidding about doing it for him, and he couldn’t help but look incredulously in the mirror when she was done. She put some of the makeup artists he’d had for interviews to shame.

“Finished!” she declared cheerfully.

Goro gave back her hand mirror. “Is it fair that you and I are significantly more fabulous than the grooms?” he asked teasingly, and Ann laughed.

“I’d kiss you on the cheek if I wasn’t wearing lipstick.” She glanced over at Lavenza and Nanako, who were wearing matching blue dresses and flower crowns. “Do you two want to do fancy eyeshadow and lip gloss?”

“I do!” Nanako said brightly, and Lavenza looked hesitant, but nodded. Ann went over, getting them both to hold still so she could do sparkly eyeshadow in a neutral tone, and then she let them pick out their choice of lip gloss.

“You both are beautiful,” she said, and Lavenza looked in the mirror in wonder.

“I’ve never used makeup before,” she said. “It’s so strange… I wonder what Master Igor would think.”

“Just don’t wash it off before you go home. Then he can see,” Nanako suggested. “I wonder why Mr. Igor didn’t come. Miss Belladonna and Mr. Nameless are here.”

Ryoji poked his head in, Junpei and Ken visible behind him. The other two were dressed the same as Akihiko and Shinjiro in suits, but with yellow ties instead. “Igor doesn’t do parties. Getting him to show up for two minutes at the Christmas party is hard enough. You guys ready?”

Ann shoved the rest of her makeup back into her bag. “I’ll go find my seat. All the guests are here, I think. I know I saw Boss and Sae-san come in, all the Thieves are here, and there’s a lot of other people.” She glanced at Ryoji. “Also there was a...a couple with a kid that gave off a really strange feeling, and a girl that kind of looked like you, Mochizuki-san.”

Ryoji lit up. “Oh! They did come!” He was beaming, and added eagerly, “I’ll have to introduce all of you after the ceremony. Those are my siblings, and my niece.”

“...which ones?” Goro asked, looking mildly concerned.

Ryoji waved a hand. “Day, Light, and Death. And my niece is the Sea.”

That didn’t sound too bad. Goro and Ann exchanged a glance, and Ann blew him a kiss and headed for the door. “I’ll see you later, Goro-kun. I’ll take a bunch of pictures!”

Goro rolled his eyes, but nodded. “All right. Good luck getting back to your seat.” He glanced down as Lavenza and Nanako each grabbed one of his hands, still confused why Nanako liked him so much. “I guess we should go, too.”

This was easy. Walk down the aisle, stand and smile, then go to the reception and dance with his well-dressed boyfriend. He still didn’t fully understand why they’d wanted him in their wedding, but he wasn’t going to mess it up for them. This was going to be the perfect day.

***

The guests were in their seats, the music cued, the ocean glittering behind the altar in the early-afternoon sun. Naoya stood in front of the altar, a copy of the ceremony hidden in a much more professional-looking book. He’d gone through the trouble of getting ordained after they’d run into the very real problem of not being able to bring in a ‘normal’ officiant, because anyone outside of their friend circle wouldn’t understand half of what was going on at this very strange wedding. This way, they could make as many references to the world ending as they wanted and not alarm anyone.

He could see all of their friends in the audience. Honestly, it was only the third time he’d ever seen Maya in a dress, and the other two times had both been weddings, too. Tatsuya and Jun’s wedding had been a low-key affair, with only a few of their close friends, and Hamuko and Shinjiro’s had been normal enough that they didn’t run into the problem of someone finding out something they shouldn’t. Their ceremony hadn’t included any references to other timelines, thankfully.

It was amazing to see the boy who had once panicked, thinking he’d been meant to die, grown into a man who was getting married and offering the same support he’d once gotten to a new generation of persona-users. So long as things kept happening, so long as Wild Cards kept awakening, they would need that support. Naoya couldn’t be prouder of Minato for rising to that challenge after all he’d been through.

Yukari, seated near the back of the audience, raised a hand to let him know they were ready, and started the music.

Ryoji was the first down the aisle. Hamuko had assured him that he could just wait up front from the start, but he’d insisted that he wanted to walk, and he did so with smiles and waves and absolutely nothing resembling seriousness at all. Which, really, was exactly the sort of tone everyone had expected, so no one was surprised. By the time he reached the front, practically skipping with glee, Naoya had an exasperated smile on his face.

“I guess I don’t need to ask how you’re doing,” he said, amused.

“Fantastic,” Ryoji replied, his grin absolutely megawatt.

The groomsmen came next, one at a time down the aisle to take their places on both sides. Ken waved at Koromaru, who had a special seat in the front row. Akihiko and Shinjiro both stood straight, each trying to behave more formally than the other. Goro scanned the crowd, looking for Akira, and finally spotted him on Ryoji’s side of the aisle, wearing a black suit with a crimson vest and giving Goro a double thumbs up from his spot beside Ryuji.

What an idiot. Goro loved him so much.

The other thing that caught his eye was a girl that looked a _lot_ like Ryoji, with dark hair and those unreal blue eyes, sitting with a couple that looked absolutely ethereal. The man had blond hair, and everything around him seemed to give off tiny, prismatic rainbows. The woman had hair the color of the sky, dressed in a flowing dress the color of the sunrise, and there was a little girl sitting in her lap with eyes like the ocean. They stood out, even among the dizzying amount of persona-users, and Goro was certain they were Ryoji’s relatives.

Junpei walked with Aigis, arm in arm, looking as natural as if this was the sort of thing they did every day, the Best Man and Maid of Honor taking their places on either side of the altar. Morgana walked at their heels, rings safely on a blue velvet pillow.

And then, heralded by Nanako and Lavenza tossing rose petals to a chorus of ‘oooh’s, Minato appeared, Hamuko on his arm. He looked overwhelmed, but the moment his eyes met Ryoji’s, it was like they were the only two people on the beach. The twins walked down the aisle with barely any hesitation after that, and Hamuko carefully put Minato’s hand in Ryoji’s with the biggest smile before taking her seat between Koromaru and Belladonna.

“Ready?” Naoya asked quietly.

Minato felt Ryoji squeeze his hand, and nodded. “Yeah. Let’s do this.”

Naoya flipped open his book to his cheat sheet. “We are gathered here today to join these two as officially-wedded husbands. They have written their own vows, which is fine with me because it’s one less thing I have to worry about. Minato, do you want to go first?”

There was a ripple of laughter from their watching friends at Naoya’s lighthearted tone, and Minato nodded. He gripped Ryoji’s hand in both of his, swallowing hard before he began.

“I...could have easily grown up alone. I lost my entire family, and I thought I would have no one. But there you were, my best and only friend, through my whole childhood. Even when I didn’t fully understand the implications, you were there making everything better. And even later, you never stopped being a bright spark in my dreary days. When I was sixteen I couldn’t picture my life getting better, not really, but you gave me love and hope in a way that even my friends couldn’t.” He smiled, blinking back the urge to tear up. “I have never been more grateful for anything in my life than having you by my side, no matter how odd it may sound to think of Death as my childhood sweetheart. You’ve always been there for me, and I want you to consider this a promise that I will always be there for you. Forever.”

Naoya glanced at the other groom, indicating it was his turn, and Ryoji laughed breathlessly. “How am I supposed to top that?” he asked weakly, sounding choked. It took him a second to regain his composure, and then he said, “I’m old. Very, very old, and almost twenty-five, all at the same time. And in all the time that I’ve existed, I’ve never been happier than when I’ve been with you. When I’ve been Pharos, and Ryoji. You were...impossible. Someone who knew what I was, and wasn’t afraid, and didn’t care what my _fate_ was. Someone who loved me enough to steal me back from a _goddess_. I’ve never stopped feeling like I’m so incredibly lucky. Like you’re so much more than I deserve. When I gave you that ring on New Year’s Eve and kissed you goodbye, I never imagined we’d end up here, but I wouldn’t change any of it, not for anything. And I promise, I’ll be by your side. Forever.”

Minato yanked their joined hands up to his face to hide that he was turning pink, and Ryoji just giggled. “I mean it. Forever and ever.”

“Be quiet,” Minato mumbled, muffled into their hands.

Naoya laughed. “Now we’ll do the exchange of rings. Morgana?"

Morgana proudly held up the pillow, rings still safely on top, and Naoya passed them to each of the grooms. “All right. Repeat after me.”

_With this ring, I marry you, and bind my life to yours, by willing choice instead of chance. It is a symbol of my eternal love, my everlasting friendship, and the promise of all my tomorrows._

Silver rings slipped on easily, replacing the silver-blue engagement rings and fitting snugly against the crystal promise ring that Minato never took off. Naoya was saying something else, probably the usual speech about whether anyone objected to their union, but neither of them heard a word, just looking in faint disbelief at their linked fingers. They only snapped out of it when Naoya nudged them.

“I said, I pronounce you husbands. You can kiss the groom. Are you listening?” he asked, and the wedding party was doing their best not to crack up.

Ryoji grinned and practically bounced on the balls of his feet, but to everyone’s surprise, before he could move, Minato linked both hands behind his neck and dragged him down to smash their lips together. Ryoji recovered quickly, sweeping him into a dip, and Hamuko started clapping and prompted an outpouring of cheering from their friends. Nanako and Lavenza started throwing the rest of their rose petals, and when Ryoji finally pulled Minato upright again, the Universe was the color of a tomato. But he didn’t stop smiling, even for a second.

***

It took a while to get everyone to start heading back up to the mansion, where the ballroom had been set for a grand reception. Minato had grabbed the bouquet from the altar, and the groomsmen led the way.

When Akihiko and Ken opened the double-doors, everyone stopped dead in the doorway. There was a young man meandering around the empty room, examining decorations and poking at flower arrangements. But when he saw them, he straightened up with a grin. “Hey. Long time, no see.”

“Um…” Minato began, uncertain, but Yu pushed his way to the front of the group.

_“Sho?”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's still Saturday because it's not Sunday until I go to sleep!
> 
> I'm sorry I missed Wednesday again. This week was...bad. Basically. But that's all I'm going to say about that. I guess from now on, I'm not gonna promise updates will be _every_ Wednesday or Saturday. I'm going to try not to go longer than a week, though, because it'll annoy me personally if I take that long to finish a chapter.
> 
> The anime episode today was amazing. So far both Casino episodes have been perfect. :D
> 
> I was considering drawing the wedding party, since I love fancy outfits, but it takes me 900 years to finish a serious picture, so have [this](http://twilightknight17.tumblr.com/post/178367524924/) instead. Honestly, you guys are lucky that I didn't spend 10000 words describing everyone's pretty wedding outfits. XD
> 
> Next chapter: Confrontation, celebration, Elizabeth tearing up the dancefloor! It's time for the reception! I've hit everything I promised in the first chapter author's note except one, I think.
> 
> Are you ready?


	8. October 21st, 2017 (2)

“Hey, Narukami,” Sho said casually, as if he wasn’t standing in the middle of the empty reception hall staring down the entirety of the Shadow Operatives plus friends. “And...are you still Arisato? Who traded names?”

Minato blinked, caught off-guard by the remarkably non-combative question. “I’m still Arisato. Ryoji took my name.”

“What are you _doing_ here?” Yu asked, as everyone started making their way into the room, leaving him and Sho a wide berth. Mitsuru was keeping a sharp eye on them, but he didn’t seem hostile so far. “Even you have to know this really isn’t the place to fight.”

Sho held up his hands. “Not here to fight this time, actually. Isn’t there usually cake at weddings?” He grinned crookedly. “I mean, if you wanna fight later, I’m good with that, but I want cake first. And I brought a present, like you’re supposed to for these things.” He jerked a thumb towards the table of gifts, where a sloppily-wrapped box sat alongside the other presents.

Yu’s mouth opened and closed a few times in disbelief. “We’re not fighting at Minato’s wedding!”

“That’s what I said in the first place.” Sho rolled his eyes. “I know I usually show up to fight, but I’ve never been to one of these before.”

Yu looked back at Minato and Ryoji, raising an eyebrow, and Minato shrugged. “He can stay if he’s not here to start a fight. Why not?”

Futaba, standing just behind Akira’s elbow, observed Yu and Sho staring at each other with a raised eyebrow. “Damn, there is some sexual tension there,” she muttered, just loud enough for Akira to hear. “Do you think they’re a thing?”

On her other side, Marie muffled a snort into her hands, and Akira cuffed her lightly on the head. “No shipping real people, Futaba. That’s weird.”

Marie breezed past them to grab Yu by the arm, greeting Sho with a lazy wave. “So what have you been doing, other than training for a fight you’re still not going to win?”

Sho scoffed. “Hey, I’ve won plenty! And one was a draw!” The trio moved off towards one of the tables, and Mitsuru sighed.

“I should have known that Minazuki is never too far from where Narukami is, but I didn’t expect him to show up _here_.”

“At least he doesn’t want to fight,” Theodore replied. “If those two started fighting, you know Sanada-san would want to join in.”

“Exactly,” Mitsuru said. “I’d prefer to not have a brawl in the mansion, much less during the wedding.”

Elizabeth wound her way through the crowd towards Minato and Ryoji, beaming when she reached them. “Before we do formal photos, your new in-laws are very eager to speak with you, Minato-san,” she said brightly.

Minato perked up. “I absolutely want to see them. Lead the way.” He squeezed Ryoji’s hand, and they followed Elizabeth to one of the tables off to the side, where a small group was standing there chatting.

Elizabeth stopped and gestured grandly at a tall, dark-haired man, and a woman with curly blonde hair that reached almost to her knees. Other than the fact that their forms were clearly adults, Minato would know them anywhere, and when Elizabeth said, “You remember Lord Chronos and Lady Philei?” he was already smiling.

“Zen, Rei… It’s so good to see you.”

“Hello, Leader,” Rei said brightly. She swooped forward to grab him in a hug before he could even respond, somehow not dropping her drink in the process. “I can’t believe you’re married!”

“...I can’t believe I’m married,” Minato muttered, returning the hug before turning to Zen. “Just like I can’t believe that we’re in-laws now.”

“It’s certainly not something I would have expected when I met all of you all those years ago,” Zen replied wryly. “I seem to recall Narukami-san being your destined partner.”

“Only because my real one wasn’t physically there,” Minato laughed. “I’m glad that you and Rei are still together, too.” It had been obvious from the start how close Zen and Rei were in the labyrinths. In hindsight, Ryoji wasn’t the first in his family to fall in love with a certain human. He’d just chosen to become one himself, while Rei became the companion of a concept instead.

Rei flashed him a peace sign. “I’m the ‘Consort of Linear Time’, officially. Zen didn’t warn me how many great-grandchildren I was going to end up with, but I love all of them so far. And I’m pretty sure I love you already,” she said, nudging Ryoji. “We haven’t met in person, but I’ve been keeping an eye on you.”

“I should have kept in touch better, especially after we remembered what happened in the Abyss,” Ryoji admitted. But then he staggered as a girl with dark hair and blue eyes like his landed on him from behind, slinging her arms around his neck.

“Yeah, you should have! I didn’t even know you were _engaged_ until I got the invitation!” she cried. “You seriously married a _human_ , Thanatos?”

Ryoji wiggled his way out from her grip. “Yep. My _favorite_ human. Keres, this is Minato. Minato, this is my twin sister, Keres, the embodiment of violent death.”

She grinned, and Minato caught a glimpse of sharp teeth. There was definitely a difference between the ones taking human form, and Ryoji actually being mostly human. But Minato nodded to her politely. “Pleased to meet you.” His gaze drifted from her to the remaining three, the sky-haired woman holding a little girl and the blond man that almost seemed like he was glowing. “And you as well.”

“My name is Hemera, and my husband is Aether,” the woman said. “Our daughter is Thalassa. It’s truly an honor to meet the person strong enough to overcome humanity’s will. Holding back our mother is no easy feat. It’s no wonder that you earned Thanatos’s love.”

“What’s truly a wonder is that you accepted it,” Aether commented. “There are many who don’t have a positive view of Death.”

Minato smiled, watching as Thalassa squirmed away from Hemera to latch onto Ryoji’s leg. Ryoji scooped her up, whispering something in her ear that made her laugh, and the Universe said fondly, “I’ve never been worried about it. He’s always just been Ryoji to me. Nothing else matters.”

“You’re weird,” Keres said bluntly, but she was grinning. “I think the whole family will like you. Except mom and dad, of course.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything else,” Minato chuckled.

***

Most people eventually settled in for food, grouping together at the tables. There was a brief, heated debate over who got to sit with Zen and Rei, since most of the younger Shadow Operatives were desperate to find out how they’d been, but no actual arguments broke out. The Thieves had made a silent pact to at least try to meet more new people, so they scattered around the room, finding seats among less familiar guests.

“That’s very kind of you to offer support, Nanjo-san,” Haru said, smiling at him from across the table. “For now, I want to try to work through this on my own. I have the board of directors primarily focusing on rebuilding Big Bang Burger’s image, with new policies and better conditions, while I’m putting together a smaller team to focus on the new chain of cafes.”

“That’s admirable of you, to take on so much responsibility,” Kei replied. “The offer remains open, so if you ever need advice, please don’t hesitate to ask.”

“You can call me, too, if you need recommendations,” Shinjiro pointed out, waving his fork. “I hire a lot of newbies at my restaurant to give them experience, and if you’re gonna be doing food at these cafes, you’ll need competent cooks. I’ve got a list of names ready.”

Haru ducked her head. “You all are too kind. I doubt that I’ll be prepared to launch the new chain until after I graduate college, but it means a lot that people as successful as you have faith in me.”

“Running a business is a very involved process,” Yukiko chimed in. “I’ve been learning since I was little and it’s still a lot, so the least we can do is support you!”

Makoto was chatting with Chie off to one side about the police academy and what sort of things were expected for potential recruits. Hamuko and Yusuke were maneuvering a large, square package into position near the gifts table. Ann and Ryuji were out on the dance floor, ignoring food with Junpei, Yosuke, Koromaru, and Teddie. And Futaba and Fuuka had commandeered a table to themselves, eagerly talking about their different computer systems over plates of snacks.

Eventually it was time to cut the cake, a four-layered masterpiece covered in buttercream flowers. Every tier was a different flavor; Shinjiro and Katsuya had absolutely outdone themselves. Ryoji smeared cake on Minato’s face when they fed each other bites, much to Hamuko’s glee, and Sho and Rei somehow managed to end up with a piece of every flavor each.

“You know,” Sojiro said casually, holding the glass of soda he’d picked up instead of champagne, “you Shadow Operatives really do know how to throw a party.”

Mitsuru hummed in acknowledgement, busy watching Rise having a very enthusiastic conversation with Belladonna. “You didn’t really get the best impression of us, before.”

“Not of you, anyway,” he said, bluntly honest. “The grooms over there are fine. And I’m sure most of the rest are, too. Didn’t think you had it in you to loosen up, though.”

“Well,” Mitsuru replied. “I hope this improves your opinion some.”

Sojiro raised his glass. “Maybe it will. Still a bit weird that the kid married Death, I guess, but Akira explained about the whole ‘Velvet Room’ thing, so I guess it’s not that bad.”

That got Mitsuru to stare at him, actually looking impressed. “You’re a very accepting person, Sakura-san.”

“I watched a God try to conquer Tokyo, and Akira’s cat turned into a child. I have to be, at this point,” Sojiro pointed out, and really, what was she supposed to say to that? He’d wandered into a very strange world and was taking it much better than some people would. That was really as much as they could hope for.

***

By the time Sae made her way to Goro, she had a glass of champagne and a half-finished plate of cake, clearly having a good time. “Akechi-kun, I finally caught up to you.”

Goro glanced up and smiled, indicating the seat beside him. “Hello, Sae-san. Please, sit with us.”

It took Sae a moment to register that, aside from a blond man she didn’t recognize, he was sitting with Shirogane Naoto, the Detective Princess, and she couldn’t help but stare a bit as she sat down. “Oh, Shirogane-san. It’s nice to meet you. I’m Niijima Sae.”

“Nice to meet you,” Naoto replied, inclining her head politely. “Akechi-kun speaks very highly of you. This is Tatsumi Kanji.”

“Nice to meet ya,” Kanji said casually. 

Goro muttered something unintelligible into his lemonade, and Sae chuckled. “Akechi-kun’s a flatterer. I’m quite certain he’s exaggerated.” She nudged him gently. “This is the first time I’ve gotten to see you interacting with everyone, though. You only meet me when you’re in Tokyo, and I haven’t really gotten to see how you get along with Arisato-san and...well, Arisato-san, for myself.”

Goro looked over at Minato, who was standing nearby, talking to Hemera and pretending that he wasn’t listening, and laughed quietly. “I’ve never made things up about how pleasant it is to live with them,” he said. “Arisato-san takes very good care of me, when he’s not napping or lying to Kirijo-san about my progress.”

Minato finally wandered over to actually involve himself in the conversation. “Just because you can’t see how much progress you’ve made, doesn’t mean the rest of us can’t. Maki-san says you’re doing well, and Ryoji and I can tell how much you’ve changed. Don’t downplay that.”

“...you didn’t deny the naps,” Goro said, deflecting from the sudden warm feeling in his chest.

“Keeping the world safe all the time takes a lot of energy,” Minato teased, but he pulled out his phone and held it up. “We’re trying to do a good job here. I actually have some video of some of his progress…”

“No!” Goro snatched the phone. “Stop showing everyone that video of me meeting Takeba-san!” He stuffed it into his pocket as Sae hid a smile behind her hand. “You shouldn’t even have your phone; you’re supposed to be mingling with your guests.”

“Is it really that bad?” Kanji asked. “Can’t be worse than some of the embarrassing stuff we’ve been through…” He and Naoto exchanged a glance, each wondering if the other was thinking of the King’s Game.

“That video does not need to be passed around to everyone that I am acquainted with,” Goro said firmly. He got up, spotting Akira waving at him, and ducked his head politely. “I think I’m going to go dance. Thank you for the advice about cleaning that coffee stain off my Jack Frost, Tatsumi-san.”

“No problem,” Kanji said. “Plushies like that can be a pain to get clean because of the specialty fabrics. Good luck.”

“Thank you.” Goro hurried away, leaving silence at the table.

Minato was unfazed by the loss of his phone. “I’ll give you my number. I can send you the video later,” he told Sae, who smiled and took another sip of champagne.

“Oh, please do.”

***

Akira caught Goro on the edge of the dance floor, coiling his arms around his shoulders. “You looked like you needed an escape,” he hummed, and Goro sighed, wrapping his arms around his waist in return. 

“Just Arisato-san being embarrassing,” he said.

“The video?” Akira guessed, and laughed when Goro’s fingers dug into his back. “Aw, c’mon, you’re cute when you’re excited about things. He’s just trying to be dadlike, give him a break.”

“I would prefer not to.” Goro spun him towards the dance floor, catching one of his hands and sweeping them into a proper waltz pose in a matter of seconds. Akira let him lead, content to press close and fall into step. There were a few other pairs dancing, but it was easy to fall into their own little bubble of contentment.

“I think Arisato-san’s going to throw the bouquet soon,” Akira murmured, playing with the hair at the back of Goro’s neck. “Should I try to catch it?”

“Don’t you dare,” Goro replied. “I know you; you’ll leap in front of someone to grab it. Let things go how they will.” He looked away, refusing to meet Akira’s eyes as he added, “That kind of superstition is ridiculous anyway.”

Akira just smiled, leaving the obvious tease unspoken. It was nicer to just sway to the music with his boyfriend, always eager to take advantage of any time with him, even months later. Being separated hadn’t gotten any more tolerable even as the rules slackened. They finished out the song, and as they turned to see what the next one was, Akira glanced down at a tug on his tails. Lavenza was standing there, looking embarrassed, and she blurted quickly, “Trickster, will you dance with me?”

“Of _course_ I will.” Akira swept into the most dramatic bow he could manage, offering her a hand. She was barely tall enough to be eye-level with his waist, but they made it work, especially when the next song turned out to be much more electronica than the last. Most people moved off the floor, giving Elizabeth space when she started to get really into the song, but Akira led Lavenza in some dramatic spins of her own.

He caught a brief glimpse of Goro filming them on his phone before his attention was captured by Nanako, who was apparently determined to get a dance with the ‘prince’ as well. Akira resisted the urge to laugh, picking up Lavenza to spin her around until they were both dizzy with glee.

***

Eventually everyone gathered together so that Minato could toss the bouquet, most of them shuffling among themselves to try to get into an optimal position to grab the coveted flowers. Goro was hiding partially behind Akira, having a sneaking suspicion that his guardians were going to try to nail him with the flowers if they could, and most of the adults were hanging back to let everyone else have a chance.

Minato glanced briefly over his shoulder, eyes scanning the crowd, then turned away and flipped the bouquet backwards in one smooth motion. It sailed in a tall arc, gracefully trailing a few loose petals, and as it fell Akira prepared to lunge for it. But in a split-second Yu boosted Nanako up over his head, and the bouquet landed triumphantly in her arms.

“That kinda seems like cheating,” Sho observed, but with Nanako happily cradling the bouquet, he softened almost immediately. “Looks like you’re gonna be the next one to get married, kid.”

Nanako shook her head. “I think it’ll be Naoto-neechan and Kanji-niichan,” she said, and thankfully they were too far away to hear her. Yu was about to make a joke about how stubborn the two of them were, but Nanako continued before he could, “But that’s only because Onii-chan won’t tell Marie-chan that he likes her.”

_“Nanako!”_ Yu choked, and Sho burst out laughing.

“Good to know he’s a coward in at least one way!”

The room, which had been filled with chatter, suddenly began to fall quiet. It started near the back, where Maya stopped literally mid-sentence, her conversation with Maki dying off as her mouth fell open. Maki looked to see what was wrong and gasped, drawing the attention of more of the crowd, and one by one people fell silent, shifting uneasily, stepping instinctively back. The residents of the Velvet Room said nothing, trying not to draw attention to themselves, while the Thieves just looked confused at the sight of the unfamiliar man in the butterfly mask, who inclined his head towards the grooms and smiled.

“Arisato Minato. It is a pleasure to finally meet you in person.”

Minato and Ryoji just stared at him, shock frozen on their faces, and Akira felt ice fill his veins as the man spoke. He picked up Lavenza, backing away warily to stand alongside Goro, who looked as confused as he felt. That was the _voice_. The one that had kept him from entering the Velvet Room as a child. It had told him to wait, and Akira had obeyed. But now something seemed very, very wrong, despite the man’s smile.

“Lavenza, who is that?” he asked. He couldn’t explain why he was so wary, but he held Lavenza tighter, and she clutched at his jacket in return.

“M-M--”

“Master Philemon,” Minato said politely, recovering somewhat from the shock of the man’s appearance. Outwardly he looked like his normal calm self, but Ryoji could feel the death grip Minato had on his fingers. “We weren’t expecting you. None of us have seen you in...a very long time.”

“You have my apologies, but I am sure you understand why that is,” Philemon said. “I regret that we have to meet again under these circumstances.”

Maya was corralling as many of the Thieves as she could, explaining who Philemon was as quickly as possible so that none of them would say anything. Yu had already grabbed Sho and clapped a hand over his mouth to preemptively ward off the ‘who the hell’ that was sure to be coming.

“Circumstances,” Minato repeated. “What circumstances are those?”

“I wish to offer you congratulations on your marriage, and gratitude for all that you have done,” Philemon said. He glanced at the Velvet attendants, then back to Minato.

“But all of this has to stop.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two hours past midnight is not still Wednesday, but I didn't want to wait for Saturday. There was too much important stuff to do, like Akira dancing with Lavenza, and cake, and Nanako catching the bouquet!
> 
> I've been in one friend's wedding, and I caught the bouquet. But it was only because she didn't really toss it in the air. She launched it straight back over her shoulder and it hit me in the face. XD I still have it, too, because it's fake flowers. It's pretty.
> 
> Next chapter: For every good thing and every life saved, for every act of interference, the scales tilt more and more. Do you understand the consequences of what you've done?


	9. October 21st, 2017 (3)

The ballroom was so silent that it might as well have been empty, rather than filled with an increasingly concerned crowd. The source of silence was different for everyone, whether shock or fear or disbelief, but the result was the same.

So few of them had actually dealt with Philemon in person. They just knew of him from the stories told by the older persona-users, and the way the Velvet attendants spoke of him. He was one of the most powerful beings in existence, and that was reason enough to be intimidated. Enough reason to listen. Already Belladonna and Nameless had stepped back, automatically deferring to his presence, and Naoya and Maki were too stunned to react. It was Maya who finally spoke up, holding tightly to to the memory of the boy that had once actually dared to attack Philemon physically, and she said as calmly as she could, “What has to stop, exactly? We were in the middle of the reception.”

Philemon’s expression was almost unnervingly neutral. “All of you have overcome the challenges placed before you. You have shown the strength of humanity in the face of impossible odds, and that is something to be commended. But things have been pushed too far. The balance has been tipped, and things must be set to right.” He looked around, finding each of the Velvet attendants in turn and meeting their eyes. “You were meant to be guides, my proxies to aid the Wild Cards on their journeys. You were not intended to grow emotionally attached in this way.”

“Master,” Elizabeth began, “we haven’t neglected our duties. Our bonds with our guests are--”

But she stopped as he looked back at her. “You have not. You have performed your duties admirably and without falter. But to treat your guests as family, to participate in things such as this… You are not human. It was never intended for any of you to live as if you were.”

Minato took a deep breath, and Ryoji glanced at him in alarm as he felt the air temperature around him rise. It was easy to forget sometimes that Minato’s core element was fire, because he was so rarely emotional enough to let it seep through. But Minato looked directly at Philemon and said firmly, “What right do you have to say that?”

“M-Minato-san--” Theodore stammered, but Minato wasn’t finished by a long shot.

“You’ve done nothing for us. All you did was give us powers and expect us to figure things out. We did everything on our own, and you’re showing up _now_ to tell us that our bonds and our choices were wrong?” Bitterness seeped into his voice. “Look at what happened. The Velvet Room is meant to be your proxy, but you didn’t even step in when it was compromised. They had to live with us for _three years_ , while the Phantom Thieves got even less help than we did! This is the same reason that Kurusu-kun was angry with us; showing up in the aftermath and judging us when we had to make do with the help we had.”

The other Wild Cards surreptitiously glanced at Akira and Goro. By this point, they all knew the story behind the ‘game’ that had been forced on the two youngest, and they were certain that, had the proper master been in control of the room, things wouldn’t have gotten nearly as dire. Goro would have had guidance from the beginning, and Akira wouldn’t have been so poorly treated.

Philemon’s neutral expression didn’t waver, but there was a flicker of frustration in his gaze. “The nature of the stalemate is such that neither I nor the Crawling Chaos can directly interfere with affairs. Only our proxies are permitted.”

“But your proxy got thrown off the board,” Akira objected, ignoring the way Lavenza clung tighter to his jacket. “It couldn’t be against the rules to fix that. Otherwise it’s unfair!”

Philemon’s gaze drifted to him instead, and he resisted the urge to shrink back. There was something familiar about the man’s dark eyes and what little of his face could be seen beneath his mask, but Akira couldn’t place it. So instead he just held Philemon’s stare as the man said, “The choices made by those before you ensured that I was unable to act. The continued interference of the Velvet attendants beyond my original intentions forced them to be considered as participants instead of proxies. As Lavenza and the Room still existed in some form, serving their purpose to provide aid with personas, it was decided that stepping in to help would be the same as if I aided one of my Wild Cards directly. It would give my counterpart leeway to act directly as well.”

“So you just abandoned them, the same way that you abandoned us,” Minato said quietly, drawing attention back to himself. “You still haven’t explained what exactly you expect from us going forward.”

“I expect you to remain professional. I am grateful to you for allowing them somewhere safe to stay, and I will not bar you from the Room, as you are still guests despite the conclusion of your journey, but the familiarity you’ve shown thus far cannot continue if you wish for the Room to remain safe from outside forces,” Philemon said, calm and unaffected. He sounded like was was doing something as simple as reading a script, reciting a list of inarguable facts. “The attendants should not take more than brief outings outside. You should not being using it as a thoroughfare.”

At that proclamation, Akira grabbed for Goro’s hand, swallowing hard. Things would be a lot more difficult if the miles between them became an actual obstacle.

“We owe them our lives!” Hamuko burst out. “You can’t punish them for helping us!” All of the younger Wild Cards could name a moment where they would have fallen without interference. Facing the Reaper, facing the end of the world, facing their shadow when they weren’t prepared… They had always, always been grateful to their attendants.

But Philemon shook his head. “While I understand your feelings, this is not intended as a punishment. I cannot fault anyone for the fates they have chosen or defied. You have accomplished things beyond the scope of imagination. But those choices have consequences. The balance grows less stable, and this is the means by which to fix it. That is all. I trust that you will do the right thing.”

He turned as if to leave, and Minato spat without thinking, “You expected Hamuko and I to die.”

“And yet you did not,” Philemon said calmly, without looking back. “But truly, Arisato Minato, you are far closer to my attendants than you are to human. At this point, one could argue that you should no longer interfere as well.”

And then he was gone, like he’d never been there, leaving confusion and concern in his wake. No one knew what to say; the reality of the situation was baffling. They had done everything right. They had saved so many lives, and the implication that something had been done _wrong_ , that they had somehow _allowed_ the takeover of the Velvet Room to stand, was terrifying.

Theodore was the first one to find his voice, quiet but perfectly audible in the silent room.

“Was I… Was I supposed to let them die?”

“No, Theo,” Margaret said quickly. “No, he just…” But she didn’t know what to say. The implications beneath their master’s words were fairly clear.

Sho shrugged Yu’s hand off his mouth. “That guy’s kind of a bitch,” he quipped, and Yu elbowed him.

“Don’t.”

Sho frowned. “Why not? Who the hell is he to wander in and crash the party?”

Yukari sighed. “You did the same thing, Minazuki-kun.”

“That’s different,” Sho objected, gesturing at the buffet table. “I just wanted cake. I brought a gift. I didn’t come in here to tell you that you screwed up reality or whatever he was saying.”

Minato said nothing, his eyes downcast, and Ryoji squeezed his hand. “Sorry guys,” he said, his voice full of faux-cheer. “I think the reception’s probably done at this point. I know a bunch of you got here through the Room, so... Mitsuru, do you think…”

“We have the means to get people home if necessary,” Mitsuru assured him, and Elizabeth chewed her lip.

“Surely the master of my master would not object to one last trip, to ensure that everyone gets home safely,” she said.

“Are we really going to listen to him, though?” Maya blurted. “He’s basically telling us we can’t be friends with the Velvet crew anymore. That’s bullshit!”

Belladonna touched her shoulder gently. “Maya-san, perhaps it is best if we listen for now. We can return to the Velvet Room and discuss what needs to be done from here. It may be that things are not as severe as he has implied.”

That made sense, of course, but no one liked it. When Nameless walked over to Akira, calmly beckoning Lavenza to return with them as well, she shook her head and held tighter to her guest. “No! It’s unfair; he cannot just confine us to the Velvet Room. That feels like--”

But Goro cut her off before she could say it. All of them knew well what _prison_ felt like, and there was no reason to make that assertion this soon. “Things will work out,” he assured her, the words just as much for Akira and Nameless as they were for her. “We’ll be okay.”

“Indeed,” Nameless said. “We have overcome worse trials than this. Have faith, Lavenza.”

Akira set her back on her feet and leaned close. “If you need anything, you can always come to me. Remember that,” he said quietly, and she gave him a hug.

“Thank you, Akira-kun…”

The Velvet residents and the people that lived farthest away ended up returning through the Velvet Room, leaving a much smaller collection of people in Yakushima than before. Ryoji’s family approached him as well, and Hemera wrapped him in a hug. “We should go as well,” she said regretfully. “If things are truly growing unstable, we don’t want to be a catalyst for anything going wrong. But if you need us, please stay in touch.”

Zen nodded his agreement. “We’re on your side. We always have been.”

Keres nudged Minato. “Just don’t let him get to you. I know that the kind of guy that married my brother isn’t going to let something like this get him down.”

“Thank you…” Minato offered her a weak smile, and they reluctantly departed, leaving the former members of SEES and the Investigation Team, along with the Phantom Thieves, milling around the ballroom without a clear path forward.

“Minato-san, what do you want to do?” Labrys asked eventually. Minato hadn’t said much of anything since Philemon’s disappearance. He’d just maintained his death grip on Ryoji’s hand like a lifeline. “Is there a way to tell if we actually broke something?”

Minato took a very deep breath. “If we go to the training building, we might be able to see if there’s any instability in meta-space.” He looked around. “Fuuka, Rise, Futaba-chan, your scanning abilities might be able to pick something up, if you’re willing to try. And I can look too.”

“I am,” Futaba said immediately. “That guy sounded like a total killjoy. Let’s prove him wrong.”

Rise and Fuuka agreed, and the whole group made their way to the other building, not even bothering to change out of their wedding finery. The training room, with the intricate tech that imitated meta-space, was plenty large enough for all of them, and the navigators settled in to see if they could detect anything strange in the Sea. But in a place not actually connected to the collective unconsciousness, they found no success.

“We can’t scan much from reality,” Futaba asked after a few minutes. “I don’t think we can really get to that Sea of Souls thing from here.” She looked from Prometheus, tiny and cradled in her cupped hands, to where Rise and Fuuka stood with Kanzeon and Juno, and they nodded in agreement.

“It’s a long shot, but it’s worth trying,” Ryoji said. “I don’t think he’d have come in person unless he thought something was wrong.”

Fuuka dispersed Juno and straightened up. “Ryoji-kun, it’s really not working. But perhaps he was just mistaken…?”

Mitsuru sighed. “Or he’s simply covering his bases. Kei has told me about Philemon, in an informational sense, at least. He is the living embodiment of humanity’s capability for good. Unfortunately, goodness is subjective. What’s good for the many may not be good for the few. And we all know that people who think they’re doing good may be blinded by their own ideals.”

“So we’re supposed to just accept this? For the sake of everyone else?” Yu asked. “Haven’t we done enough?”

The Thieves had been mostly quiet, since they weren’t involved in anything but the most recent of crises, but Ryuji finally muttered, “Maybe you should just do better. Might save us all some grief.”

“W-What do you mean?” Chie said.

Ryuji scowled, “I mean, seems to me like you all weren’t strong enough. Apparently that’s why he couldn’t help the Velvet Room.”

“Wh-What?!” Hamuko stammered. “It wasn’t becau--”

“Yeah it was!” Ryuji cried. “He said that he couldn’t help them, because they’d helped _you_ more than they were supposed to! And that meant we had to do everything with no help at all! We’re clearly stronger than you, then.”

“W-Wait a second,” Yosuke said. “That’s not how it works. We didn’t ask for help!”

But Junpei had already stepped forward, scowling. “We fought our battles ourselves, the same as you. Where do you get off on implying you’re better than us?”

Akira reached for Ryuji, distinctly remembering fearing for his life before the exiled Velvet residents had stormed the room and saved him, but Ryuji shrugged him off. “I could prove it right now, one on one!”

“Ryuji!” Makoto snapped, at the same time Yukari hissed, “Junpei! Stop!” But everyone was already instinctively backing up, taking sides, watching the two warily and bristling for a fight.

“Onii-chan, why are they fighting?”

“Because everyone is stressed, Nanako.”

“Ryuji, please don’t!”

“Can he even do that here?”

“Iori, stop that right now!”

“We carry our evokers to major events just in case…”

“Sakamoto-kun, don’t be stupid!”

Junpei rocked back on his heels, a grin splitting his face. “Show me what you’ve got, then, kid,” he taunted, and Ryuji growled as his mask appeared on his face.

“I’ll show you,” he said. “Come, Seiten Taisei!”

The trickster persona appeared, to incredulous noise from the Shadow Operatives, who had seen little of what the Phantom Thieves were capable of except for the summoning of Satanael. Ryuji was grinning, confidence on full display, and the rest of the Thieves were prepared to jump in and back him up if he needed it. But all of them panicked as Junpei pulled what looked like a gun from a holster concealed under his jacket, pointed it at his temple, and pulled the trigger. None of them even saw the persona that formed; half the Thieves screamed, and Seiten Taisei vanished as Ryuji stumbled back from Junpei in horror.

“What the _fuck?!_ ”

Makoto and Haru had grabbed Ann, who was hiding her face in Haru’s shoulder, while Akira stumbled back, hand over his mouth to ward off a sudden wave of nausea. Unbidden he thought of bleeding holes in his own forehead, the cognition of Goro with a gun to his head, everything that could have gone wrong in the aftermath of the Casino, and he realized distantly that he was shaking. Before he could fall, though, Goro had grabbed him and was holding him up, muttering quiet reassurances into his ear.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” Goro whispered, trying to process what was happening. The bitter remnants of panic still filled him too, acrid and poisonous in his veins, and he held Akira tighter to ground himself. It had never occurred to him before; he’d never paid much attention to Ryoji’s pantomime when they sparred, but thinking back now with context, he’d clearly been miming a gun to his head. _Why?_ Was it a habit, or was there something more to it? Minato didn’t do _anything_ , he just called for his personas and there they were. But Minato was special, so maybe…

Guns, even if they were fake, were so much _worse_ than masks, though. Even without blood.

As there was a mad scramble to reassure the Thieves that yes, as terrible as it looked, the evokers were normal, Minato let go of Ryoji’s hand and walked away. Ryoji didn’t try to stop him, knowing he probably needed space, and the Universe made his way back to the mansion itself, where the Velvet door still lingered. It was easy to slip through and take a few turns to find the door that would lead him into the Sea, and he stepped into the starry expanse and took a shaky breath, twisting his rings around his finger anxiously.

He’d never considered the balance. Even after learning about what the older Wild Cards had been through, the crisis in Sumaru, all of it, he’d never once considered that their actions would have any effect on it. Maybe this was a punishment for that negligence. Everything balanced out in the end. Everything returned back to zero. They’d had so many good things, so much good luck, compared to what could have happened.

It only made sense that now they were paying for it.

“There has to be another answer!” he shouted into the Sea. “You’re supposed to be on our side!” His fists clenched with frustration, head bowing as he screwed his eyes shut. The implication had been that he shouldn’t get involved anymore either, and that was an impossible choice. How was he supposed to pick one family over another?

_“He is on your side. His ideas of what’s fair are just...off, sometimes,”_ a semi-familiar voice said, and Minato whipped around, taking in the brown-haired figure that he’d seen in the Sea during that last desperate push towards Mementos. The man smiled wryly. _“That’s why I punched him, after all._ ”

“Suou-san,” Minato breathed. “The other one… How are you…?”

_“There’s always a way through the Sea, especially when the borders are still weak,”_ he said, patting Minato on the shoulder. _“And clearly you’re upset. What has he done?”_

Minato stuffed his hands in his pockets. “He said we’ve been too close to the Velvet Room. They’ve helped too much, and we have to go back to being impersonal and professional. And I’m pretty sure he implied that I shouldn’t help anyone anymore either.”

The other’s expression twisted into a sympathetic frown. _“Do you want to talk about it?”_

If there was anyone who could understand his frustration with Philemon, it was him. But Minato shook his head. “I shouldn’t stay now. I just needed a minute; I have to get back and stop everyone from chewing each other to pieces.”

_“Of course. But later…”_

“Yeah, that would be great. Thank you, Suou-san.”

Right now he needed to go back and make sure the rest of the Shadow Operatives hadn’t completely alienated the Phantom Thieves. He trusted Ryoji, but he also knew that Ryoji was protective of the kids, so there was the smallest possibility that he could make things worse unintentionally. This wasn’t the time for their tenuous trust between groups to fracture.

Minato wasn’t losing anyone, if he could help it. No matter what Philemon said. He’d defeated a goddess; what was Philemon in comparison to that?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Wednesday! Everybody was really prepared to fight Phil after last chapter! Wow, guys. Nice. Seriously, I laughed, because all of your comments were so aggressive. It was great. XDDD
> 
> Philemon isn't _trying_ to cause problems, really. He's just doing his thing. Fretting about the balance. You know how it is.
> 
> Next chapter: There's no way to stop people from taking sides when such a drastic decision needs to be made. At least Minato has someone to talk to.


	10. October 26th, 2017

All of them knew, deep down, that it had not been Philemon’s intention to start a war. He’d come with a warning and a solution to fix what might overbalance. Nothing more.

But they were only human, and that didn’t stop them from drawing the battle lines themselves.

After that first aborted brawl on Yakushima, people started to take sides. Maya, always the mothering sort, remembered all-too-well how Philemon was just as guilty of playing games as Yaldabaoth or the Crawling Chaos, and thought his caution was overblown and unfair to the younger attendants especially. Naoya, however, was more willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, remembering a time when he had stepped in personally to offer guidance along the way, and seeing this as more of the same.

Everyone hovered in an odd limbo between trust and distrust, willingness to offer good faith and bitterness at perceived abandonment. It was an unspoken agreement between everyone not to fight, especially since there were those with much higher stakes if a final decision was made.

“I can understand where he’s coming from,” Naoto said, stirring her drink. She, Kanji, and Yu were out to lunch, freeing up his dorm room so that Yosuke could weep over his unfinished research paper in peace. “Based on everything we know about what happened before and how bad things got near the end, no one should want to risk the Crawling Chaos having the ability to interfere in our world again. If it means seeing our friends a little less, that’s a small price to pay.”

Kanji tapped her on the shoulder, and when she looked over at him, he said, “Naoto, you’re doing it again.”

She flushed, biting her lip. “...sorry. I’m still too analytical sometimes.”

“Don’t apologize. You’re not _wrong_ , but that’s not really the issue for most people,” Yu said. “He isn’t cutting us off from them completely. He’s not saying we can never see them. But I don’t think anyone really wants to go back to the way things were. Minato and Kurusu-kun, especially, are close with them. None of the Phantom Thieves know any different than the way things are now. I can’t imagine they’ll take restrictions well, considering what they’re like.”

Kanji grinned crookedly. “Like we weren’t the same way, poking our noses into things,” he pointed out.

Yu sighed. “We were solving crime, not causing a scene.” He picked at his food. “I’m not the one with the most to lose, here, so I don’t really feel right sharing my opinion. Minato’s always been part of the Velvet Room, for as long as I’ve known him. Hell, the first time I ever saw him, he was asleep in the limo like he belonged there. And I wouldn’t dare tell him that he needed to give up how comfortable he feels there, or give up his life in reality.”

Kanji shrugged. “If you put it simply, that guy wants us to stop because there’s a chance something bad could happen. But we don’t know how much of a chance. So we’ve all gotta decide if we’re willing to live with the risk.”

“That’s hard to say, when the risk is potentially whether or not the world ends,” Naoto said. “All of us, weighing our personal wishes against the whole world. Can we do it?”

There was no answer to that. This wasn’t as simple as putting it to a vote. These were people’s lives; their friends’ lives.

There wasn’t going to be an easy answer.

***

> _[Baofu - 1:19pm] Hey. Did you get the new hard drive I sent you?_
> 
> _[Fuuka - 1:33pm] Oh! Yes, I did._
> 
> _[Fuuka - 1:33pm] It was surprisingly simple to install, and the computer runs much better now. Thank you for writing out instructions._
> 
> _[Baofu - 1:34pm] No problem. Kirijo-san’s pretty careful about keeping that thing in working order. Least I could do. Make sure you back everything up, though._
> 
> _[Fuuka - 1:35pm] We’ve got a new external drive as well. Manual back-up every Wednesday._
> 
> _[Fuuka - 1:35pm] I meant to text you sooner, but after everything that happened, it got away from me._
> 
> _[Baofu - 1:36pm] Understandable. I’m sorry we couldn’t be there to tell the Arisatos-kun congrats._
> 
> _[Baofu - 1:36pm] And see all the other shit. He finally shows his face again and manages to piss off everyone in one go._
> 
> _[Fuuka - 1:36pm] It’s hard to know what to think, since I had never met him before. But he certainly did not leave the greatest impression._
> 
> _[Baofu - 1:38pm] He’s goodness, supposedly, but that doesn’t make him ‘good’. Just remember that._
> 
> _[Baofu - 1:38pm] You’ve got to do what you all think is right. And if the worst happens?_
> 
> _[Baofu - 1:39pm] I’ve met that Arisato kid. And Kirijo, and plenty of you. Enough to know you can handle anything those bastards can dish out. We knocked him on his ass with 5 of us, after all._
> 
> _[Fuuka - 1:40pm] Thank you, Baofu-san. I’ll tell Mitsuru what you said. And Minato._
> 
> _[Baofu - 1:40pm] Sounds good. Ugh, Ulala wants me to tell you that she ‘sends her love’. So that, too._
> 
> _[Fuuka - 1:40pm] (*^‿^*)_

***

Sojiro had gotten used to a lot of bizarre things in the process of getting to know the Shadow Operatives and dealing with the Phantom Thieves. Gods, mental worlds, magic powers, talking cats that turned into children… So when the young girl with platinum hair and bright gold eyes wandered into Leblanc and climbed up onto a counter seat, he managed to limit his surprise to a double-take and ask kindly, “Hello. Did you want to order something?”

She scrutinized the menu with surprising seriousness, then said politely, “I think I wish to try a...caramel latte? Ryoji-san has given me caramel candies before, and Akira-kun says that lattes are a good start for people who have never had coffee.”

“That’s a pretty good assessment,” Sojiro said, resolving to add extra caramel to the drink. He got down a mug and selected one of the milder-flavored beans, and once the grinder was humming away at the end of the counter, he came back over and said, “Lavenza-chan, right? You’re Akira’s friend, from that blue room.”

“Yes. I am Akira-kun’s attendant.” She sat up straighter, smoothing out her dress. “And you’re Boss-san, right? I saw you at the wedding.”

Sojiro chuckled. “That’s right. So, what brings you out here? Akira’s at school for a little longer, if you were hoping to see him.”

There was a commercial playing some ridiculous jingle in the background, and Lavenza glanced at it before looking down at her lap as if ashamed. “I would like to see Akira-kun, but… I just needed to get away from the Room for a while. I’m tired of listening to my family fight.”

She sounded so sad in that moment that Sojiro couldn’t help but be concerned, and as he moved to brew the coffee, he asked, “Is it because of what that guy said, about how your family needs to stop ‘interfering’, or whatever?”

She nodded solemnly. “Lady Belladonna and Nameless believe that we should listen for now, and return to being truly neutral. Because we are not human. And...Master Igor hasn’t said much, but I think he agrees. But my siblings spent three years living here, and they are angry. They don’t want to go back to being defined by the Velvet Room alone.” She sighed. “Elizabeth was yelling at Master Igor when I left.”

Sojiro set a mug carefully in front of her. “Sorry there’s no art,” he said. “Akira does that sort of thing much better than me. Now, do you want to know what I think, as a grumpy old man with eight and a half kids?”

“You have half of a child?” Lavenza asked, her eyes wide, and Sojiro laughed.

“I count Akechi-kun, even if someone else is taking care of him,” he explained. “Anyway… Whatever supernatural bu-- er… Whatever magic you guys are made of, you’re still people. In a world where I just watched a kid marry Death, in a world where I’m the legal guardian of Hope shaped like a cat shaped like a person, why would anyone have the right to give you orders based on the fact that you’re not human? Why would that even matter?”

“Because he says we aren’t supposed to act like humans. I’m not even supposed to be here!” Lavenza said, her fists clenching on the counter, and Sojiro was silently grateful that none of his regular customers had shown up.

“Forget what you’re supposed to do for a second,” he said calmly. “What do you want to do? Because anyone that worked with Akira, I’m pretty sure you’ve got a rebellious streak in there somewhere.”

She looked up at him, golden eyes bright and earnest. “I want to be able to do this. To come see Akira-kun, and try coffee, and… When I was younger, Minato-san took me to a festival. And Margaret and I went to see Nanako-chan when she was in the hospital. I wouldn’t be able to do any of that! I spent three years in a prison. It’s frightening to think of being confined in the Room again, even if it is my home.”

Sojiro folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know what kind of consequences that guy is expecting if you don’t follow his ‘suggestion’, but it’s obviously upset all of you, and it doesn’t seem like he considered what any of you would think.”

Lavenza looked away. “He is afraid the Crawling Chaos will try to end the world again.”

That threw Sojiro off just for a moment, and then he said dryly, “I watched those kids shoot a god. Naïve as it might be, that doesn’t actually worry me.”

“Boss-san…” Lavenza began, but she trailed off, and simply picked up her mug to take a sip of her latte. Her eyes widened at the taste. “This is really good!” she exclaimed, and Sojiro smiled.

“Thanks, kid.”

The bell above the door chimed, as the door swung open to admit Akira, Morgana, and Futaba, newly released from school. Morgana and Futaba were bickering over something on either side of Akira, who just looked exasperated.

“I’m just saying, I did an entire year of high school already! Middle-school classes are boring.”

“You think you’re bored? Try sitting through a math class when you could probably do college level stuff.”

“Guys,” Akira said, trying to keep the peace as usual, “do you really want to call more attention to yourselves by skipping grades when you could just get perfect scores on everything?”

“No,” Futaba huffed. “I already don’t like being the new kid.”

“Exactly.” That was when Akira registered exactly who was at the counter. “Lavenza? Is everything okay?”

She glanced at Sojiro, who nodded, and then said, “I just wanted to try the coffee you recommended, Akira-kun.”

He looked her over searchingly, as if trying to find some hidden hurt or distress, but then he smiled. “Do you have to go home soon? There’s a new show at the planetarium that I’ve been meaning to go see.”

Lavenza hesitated. She would probably already be in trouble for leaving without telling anyone, especially in the current circumstances. What was a little longer? And she’d never been to the planetarium before.

“I would love to go, Akira-kun.”

To hell with the battleground back in the Velvet Room. Sojiro was right; what was a Trickster’s attendant without a little rebellion of her own?

***

_“Has anything changed?”_

The Sea of Souls glittered, stable as ever despite Philemon’s fears. Minato, seated on the rippling ground, wrapped his arms around his knees and sighed.

“Not really,” he said. “Not majorly. People aren’t fighting, but...everyone is tense.” He didn’t look at the figure at his side, not wanting him to see how anxious he really was. When he’d gotten to the Sea, it hadn’t been long before the brown-haired man had shown up, as if knowing how desperate he was to talk. “It’s lurking under every conversation now. It’s getting unnerving to text Yu-kun or Mitsuru and know that they _want_ to talk about it, but that they’re not in order to spare everyone’s feelings.”

It was easy to hear the concern in the other’s voice. _“It should be an easy decision, shouldn’t it?”_

“Not everyone sees it that way.” Minato let his hair fall over his eyes. “Mitsuru’s worried. So’s Nanjo-san. They think it’s better to stop a crisis before it happens, which normally I would agree with. But… They don’t understand. They don’t know what it’s like to be given this kind of power and then…”

_“Be expected to die, to save them all,”_ he said bluntly. _“That’s how he chooses to play his games. What’s the sacrifice of one pawn to keep the rest of the board safe? And they are even more his pawns than you were.”_

“It’s just… It’s not fair. It’s wrong!” Minato huffed. “It’s not just my life, it’s their lives, too. It’s like he doesn’t see them as people, when they are. And with what he said… I don’t know if he sees me as a person anymore either.”

_“As you described it, it sounded as though he intended you to choose. I’ve no doubt you would be a fine Velvet attendant, if you wanted to put yourself under Philemon’s thumb. But that carries its own sacrifices.”_

Minato scowled. “I can’t _choose_. If that was how he wanted things, neutral and unattached, he had eight years to step in. Why now, when it’s too late? Did it really take almost losing the Velvet Room to get him to pay attention to us?!” His fists slammed into the ground, and he froze there for a moment, taking a shaky breath. “...I’m sorry, Suou-san. I’m just frustrated. My friends can’t reach an agreement, the attendants can’t reach an agreement, and I’m afraid that Igor is just going to make the decision before we can figure out if there’s another way. I know it’s only been a week, but…”

His counterpart smiled. _“I understand, Minato-kun. You have every right to be angry. Things were finally peaceful, and now he wants to rip part of your family away from you and your friends. He considers the needs of humanity above the needs of his individual chosen, regardless of the harm that causes.”_

“...but what can I do?” Minato took a breath, feeling something like a bond deep in his heart. He didn’t recognize the link, but he acknowledged it, and the other sounded amused when he said,

_“You’re the Universe, aren’t you? That’s entirely up to you.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~~Silly Yu. This ain't a scene, it's an arms race. :P~~
> 
> The important part here was Lavenza and Sojiro because I really wanted to write the two of them interacting. ^_^
> 
> It's interesting trying to portray the difference between how everyone is thinking about this. Minato, as the closest one to the issue on the outside, is obviously taking it the hardest, but even the Velvet kids aren't doing great. And it's hard to trust the guy that gave you powers and left you to martyr yourself.
> 
> Next chapter: Worse than making a decision is having that decision taken away.


	11. November 3rd, 2017

Things were mostly quiet for a while. Life had a tendency to go on, regardless of whatever was happening, and in the interim nothing really changed despite the specter of Philemon’s expectations. Perfectly normal for the people who had spent their teen years attending school while the world was ending.

When Goro got home from school, though, he found his guardians in the living room, having some kind of intense-looking discussion. Leaving his shoes by the door, he came in and sat down. “Is this about the Velvet Room, again? Has anything new happened?”

“Not really. I think that’s sort of the point we’re making,” Ryoji said, shrugging. “Not that any of us expected the world to end in two weeks, but…”

“It’s enough to make a decision,” Minato said firmly. “I don’t want things to go back to how they were.”

“...frankly, I have to agree with you, Minato-san, even though I don’t personally know how things were before,” Goro sighed. His guardians getting married and sharing a last name had forced him to jump to first names, just to tell apart which one he was actually speaking to. They’d spent most of the two weeks since the wedding both responding if he used ‘Arisato-san’, and while he knew they were doing it on purpose, he’d given up anyway. “Akira has been texting me pictures of him and Lavenza going on ‘adventures’ for the past week, so this whole situation seems to have driven her _further_ from the Velvet Room in an effort to experience the outside world before it is taken away.”

Ryoji snorted. “Okay, first of all, I want to see those pictures. Second, if that doesn’t prove they’re basically as human as the rest of us, I don’t know what does. She really did grow up to be as stubborn as her guest, didn’t she?”

Goro handed over his phone, which contained a wide variety of selfies taken at the park, the planetarium, the fishing pond, the arcade, and, strangely enough, the maid cafe. “Obviously I have less experience with them than the two of you, and also had an...unpleasant tendency to not think of shadows as people, but I would never have considered the Velvet attendants to be less than human.”

“Which is exactly why I’m going to tell Igor that we want to just keep things as they are. Elizabeth texted earlier saying to come talk when I had a chance, and I’ve already called Mitsuru, Yu, and Nanjo-san,” Minato said. “We’re going to take our chances. If anything happens, we can handle it.”

“Considering I’ve seen what you and Akira are capable of, I believe that,” Goro said, and Minato got to his feet.

“I’ll be back soon. We should order food; a mini-celebration of finally dealing with this,” he said, a smile tugging at his lips.

Goro bit his lip. “Sushi?” he asked hopefully.

“Why not? That sounds good.” Minato waved to Ryoji. “I’ll trust you to order it. Make sure you get Koromaru some salmon; he likes those.”

“Got it. Good luck with Igor,” Ryoji replied, and Minato headed down the hall and into the Velvet Room.

Somehow, the usual song sounded somber, and Minato slowed down as he passed through the hallways. He never really felt uncomfortable in the Velvet Room, but right now something was just...awkward. While the path to Igor’s study was familiar, he didn’t see any other attendants, and when he stepped into the room he saw only Igor and Elizabeth. It was like nothing had actually changed from almost a decade ago, just that Elizabeth looked a little older.

And his apathy had become a thing of the past.

“You wanted to talk to me?” he asked. Nothing had sounded off in Elizabeth’s message, but even if they had three years of practice, it was still hard to convey tone through text.

Igor’s hands were folded atop his desk. “I’m certain you can guess that this is in regards to my master’s declaration at your wedding,” he said, unblinking gaze locked directly on Minato. “Just as I am sure you have been eager for a resolution.”

“I made my decision,” Minato said.

“As have I,” Igor responded. “I have decided that it is in our best interests to obey my master, and return the Velvet Room to its prior, neutral state.”

Minato felt his heart leap to his throat. “What? B-But… You can’t do that. We’re meant to have free will! You can’t just make the decision for us!”

“That is true,” Igor said in his usual serene way. “Those with the power of the Wild Card shape their own fates. But the Velvet Room and those that attend it are Philemon’s creations, and we are obliged to follow his rules. Though you may see us otherwise, in truth we are little more than dolls, Minato-san. We have overstepped our boundaries quite thoroughly, and that must be rectified.”

“You’re not _dolls_ ,” Minato cried. “You’re not any different from us, not really! Not in any ways that matter!”

“That is kind of you to say, Minato… Minato-san,” Elizabeth said, something like regret lurking beneath her formal tone. “But our first obligation is always to humanity, and what must be done to keep the balance even. We...had forgotten that.”

“Elizabeth…” He wasn’t willing to show how much it upset him, trying to reconcile the Elizabeth that he had come to know with the formal, almost-distant one standing in front of him.

Igor nodded to her, and she bowed to both of them before heading out of the study, leaving behind just the Master of the Room and his most troublesome guest. “Those who possess the keys to the Room will still be allowed entrance. You needn’t worry about that.”

That was a tiny relief. Akira and Goro deserved that much, at least. But it didn’t improve the situation by much. “How are Lavenza and Theodore and Margaret? What about Belladonna and Nameless?”

“They understand that we do not have a choice.”

“Of course you have a choice!” Minato said furiously. “You’re just not taking it! Everything we’ve done, all the miracles we’ve managed, and you’re telling me _this_ is unchangeable?”

“Minato-san--”

“No,” Minato snapped. “ _No_. He doesn’t get to come back after all this time and tell you that you’re not people. And if you’re willing to go along with that, maybe you don’t care about the other attendants as much as I thought.” Before Igor could reply, he turned and walked away, leaving the study behind and retreating towards the door to the Sea.

It didn’t make any sense for Igor to disregard the attendants’ feelings like that. ‘They understand’ didn’t mean they were happy about it, and he couldn’t picture Lavenza or Elizabeth being thrilled to go along with this. Even just hearing her revert back to using an honorific stung. She was basically family to him.

“It shouldn’t be like this,” he told the empty Sea. But it just glittered impassively, and he clenched his fists. “What are we supposed to do? Pretend everything is fine, that we don’t mind it being like this? That won’t work; Kurusu-kun won’t take that for a second, I know it.”

_”So what will you do?”_

Minato didn’t even turn to look. “What _can_ I do, Suou-san?”

_“Igor betrayed you.”_ His voice was sharp. _“He chose to side with the one limiting your family’s freedom.”_

Minato squeezed his eyes shut, only for them to snap back open when a second, equally-familiar voice scoffed, _“What decisions will he make next, for the ‘good of humanity’?”_

It was himself, golden-eyed and angry. His shadow stood alongside the taller man, facing him down with a furious expression. Minato took a step back, eyes going wide. “Orpheus… He can’t make decisions for us. The only reason he can command the Velvet attendants is because they supposedly aren’t people.”

_“That’s right,”_ his shadow said. _“He can’t. But he’s playing a game with rules I don’t understand.”_

The other man raised an eyebrow. _“How long until he decides that certain other people aren’t human enough either?”_

_“How long before he comes for Ryoji?”_

_“How long before he comes for Hope?”_

_**“How long before he comes for me?”** _

Minato reached up to cover his face as his head pounded, throbbing with pain like the worst migraine he’d ever had. Through his fingers he caught a glimpse of a hand on his shadow’s shoulder, his golden-eyed doppelganger wavering under the touch.

_“I’m the Universe,”_ the shadow insisted. _“And apparently everything I’ve done has put us on the brink of disaster, and now my choices don’t matter.”_

What had been the tipping point? Had it really been Elizabeth, in the very beginning, nuking the Reaper as they climbed the tower? If he had died, instead of saving Ryoji… He’d never have met Akira as a child. Hamuko and Shinjiro probably wouldn’t be here. They wouldn’t have adopted Goro...if Goro had even survived. What events were set, and what had been changed?

Would the balance truly be more stable if he had died?

_“Philemon is just as terrible in the end. Atrocities done in the name of ‘goodness’ are still atrocities. We’re just the same, regardless of what he chooses to think.”_ His hand tightened on Minato’s shadow’s shoulder. _“No wonder Suou Tatsuya punched him!”_

The shadow laughed, high and hysterical, and Minato felt his vision blacking out. 

_“Maybe Philemon really did intend me to die!”_

***

Ryoji wasn’t usually one to worry about Minato. He was fully aware that his husband could take care of himself in most any situation. But with everything that had been going on lately, he couldn’t help but be a little concerned when Minato didn’t come back from the Velvet Room. So he went to check on him, venturing into the blue hallways until he found Igor and Elizabeth in the study.

“Hey, uh, where did Minato go? He came to talk to you and didn’t come back.”

Elizabeth glanced down at the compendium she was holding. “I believe he went to the Sea. He is...not happy with my master right now.”

Ryoji frowned, looking between them warily. “...what happened?”

“It has been decided that we of the Velvet Room must obey my master’s will,” Igor said. “It is what is best for humanity.”

“I’m guessing he didn’t take that well,” Ryoji hummed. “Considering that he was coming in here to tell you that we didn’t care what Philemon said.” And considering how worried Minato had been lately, this was probably the final straw for his nerves. “Is there really that much of a chance that the Crawling Chaos will try something?”

“It is not only his potential action, but the master of my master’s forced inaction, Ryoji-san. If we continue to act as if we are players and not our master’s proxies, he cannot help us if anything else happens to the Velvet Room,” Elizabeth said, but her voice was level and even as if reciting a practiced speech. “It is as much to keep us safe as it is for humanity.”

“And if the Velvet Room was unable to aid the next Wild Card, whenever they may awaken, well… You have seen the disaster that can be born of such a thing,” Igor said.

“We would never let that happen again,” Ryoji said firmly. “We know, now. And he couldn’t directly touch a Wild Card, could he? Kurosu-san was manipulated, not possessed. Same with Kandori, right?”

“That is...correct. Although Kurosu Jun was mostly unaware of the severity of his actions while they were happening, he was never under Nyarlathotep’s direct control. And acting as the persona of Kandori Takahisa only allowed him the opportunity to provide influence.” Igor steepled his fingers. “However, the reason he was able to influence Kurosu-san so strongly was because he began when Kurosu-san was just a child, taking the guise of his father and gradually wearing down his defenses. And Kandori was indeed possessed in the end, when his will and resolve had faded and he had surrendered. But a Wild Card at full strength should not be able to be manipulated as they were.”

Ryoji was silent, trying to place the uneasy feeling in his stomach. He felt like he was on the bullet train, barrelling headlong towards an answer that he didn’t want. “Can he disguise himself as anyone?” he asked, very quietly.

“He is humanity, and thus he wears the face of humanity, as my master does,” Igor said.

Ryoji, in the interest of sanity, chose to interpret that as a ‘yes’ rather than get into the philosophical potentials. “Igor… Are the borders between worlds still weak like they were last Christmas?”

For the first time since Ryoji had arrived, Igor looked uncertain. “They are not. Why do you ask?”

Uneasiness twisted into fear and Ryoji turned away. “I need to get to him. You said he went to the Sea, right? I need to go, right now.”

“Ryoji, what’s wrong?” Elizabeth cried, chasing after him as he ran out of the room. She kept pace with him easily as he hurried through the halls. “Is something wrong with Minato?”

“He said he’s been talking to Suou-san!” Ryoji called over his shoulder. “Suou-san can’t be here, not like that, not if things are stable!”

Elizabeth’s step faltered. “W-What…?” But she recovered almost immediately and pushed herself even faster, running alongside him. “Minato isn’t foolish enough to fall for that sort of thing,” she said, though her pace contradicted her words.

“He is if he’s hurt and angry and betrayed,” Ryoji countered. “He’s upset at Philemon, he’s upset at Igor… He feels like one of the people he trusted most turned on him and threw everything he’s done back in his face. Does that sound like enough to make him vulnerable to someone telling him exactly what he wants to hear? We all know Suou-san wasn’t Philemon’s biggest fan. If he’s been feeding Minato’s anger using someone he trusts...”

He felt like an idiot. He should have asked more questions, should have thought things through, instead of trusting that an older Wild Card was providing guidance. But he’d gotten used to Minato and Hamuko turning to Naoya and Maya and Maki for help, ever since just after the fight with Nyx, even. Suou Tatsuya reaching across the barrier between timelines to help when they needed him didn’t seem strange enough to ring any alarm bells, especially since that was exactly what he had done back at Christmas.

Foolish, useless… He should have known, but he and Minato both were too close to the problem to see clearly. And now they might be paying for it. He could only hope Minato was strong enough for this.

He and Elizabeth skidded around the last corner, heading for the door to the Sea. But before they could get there, it opened, and Minato stepped through with a puzzled look on his face.

“Why are you running?” he asked, as the two of them practically fell trying to stop.

“Are you okay?” Ryoji countered. “I heard what Igor decided.”

Minato stared at the floor. “...I’m fine. I just...needed a minute.”

Ryoji and Elizabeth exchanged a glance. “Dearest… It’s been three hours.”

“Oh.” He didn’t sound surprised, just tired. “Sorry. Time doesn’t feel quite the same in the Sea.”

“I know that, but…” Ryoji hesitated. “Was Suou-san there?”

Minato shook his head. “He never showed up. Maybe Philemon did something so he can’t get here anymore.” He pushed the door to the Sea closed behind him and tilted his head. “If it’s really been that long, we should go. You were getting sushi, right?”

“R-Right.” Ryoji caught his hand, linking their fingers together and feeling him squeeze reassuringly. “Yeah, I got Goro-kun to put the sushi in the fridge. I just hope it made it to the fridge and he and Koromaru haven’t eaten it all.”

He was expecting a quip or a teasing remark, but Minato just nodded. “It’s probably fine.”

“Yeah…” Ryoji glanced at Elizabeth as they headed back towards their door. She was watching them with a baffled expression, and the look in her eyes said it all.

_Keep an eye on him._

Yeah, he would.

Something wasn’t right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Man, if I'd waited a little longer I could have posted this on the day of. But no, I'm already annoyed it took this long. Life is stressful and Minato didn't want to talk to me for like a week. But, happy Saturday! Here we are at last.
> 
> I'm seriously just having a good time at this point. So buckle up, everybody!
> 
> Although, I'm not going to define when next chapter will be, because I'm working on the eight prompts for Shuake confidant week, which starts in two days, and I'm doing NaNoWriMo. Ideally I'll have time to get it done in the next few days so I can do next Saturday, because I don't like leaving it that long, so we'll see.
> 
> Next chapter: Sushi is the ideal dinner when you've been stressed and tired and worried. Right?


	12. November 3rd, 2017

Goro had been watching TV in the living room while he waited for his guardians, and as soon as they emerged from the Velvet door he was on his feet, trying to disguise how glad he was that they’d come back. Minato had been gone for a long time, and everything was so tense recently that it was easy to worry. But Ryoji just waved cheerfully and asked, “Where’s Koromaru?”

“Last I saw him, he was taking a nap on Ken’s bed,” Goro replied, and Ryoji nodded.

“Will you go get him? I’ll get the table set,” he said. “And then we can finally have dinner. Sorry that took so long.”

“I didn’t mind waiting.” Goro headed up to Ken’s room, trying to parse the odd feeling in his gut. Something was...not wrong, necessarily, but off. Something in Ryoji’s demeanor was odd, the way he was holding himself, _something_. Goro lamented to himself that he hadn’t been keeping his detective skills sharp the past few months, too focused on the wedding and his schoolwork, otherwise he might be able to figure out what was going on without having to suck it up and ask.

He tapped on the doorframe before going in and ruffling Koromaru’s ears. “Hey, Koro. Minato-san’s back, so it’s time for sushi.”

Koromaru, after a sleepy whine, processed the mention of sushi and shot to his feet with an excited bark. Goro lifted him from the bed to the floor and then headed back downstairs with the dog trailing at his heels. He walked past where Ryoij was putting drinks and plates on the table and stuck his head into the kitchen. “Need any help, Minato-san?”

“It would be appreciated,” Minato said, setting one of the sushi platters on the counter. But before Goro could move to get the others out of the fridge, Koromaru darted forward and planted himself in the center of the kitchen, hackles up.

“Koromaru, what the hell,” Goro began, but Koromaru just growled and barked sharply at Minato, who was watching with a disinterested expression. Goro knelt down, putting a hand on Koromaru’s back worriedly. “Hey, we’re getting the sushi out as fast as we can,” he said lightly, trying to ease whatever odd tension was filling the room. “Minato-san’s probably tired from dealing with Igor. How did that go, by the way?”

When he looked up, Minato was smiling crookedly, a touch of gold in his eyes. “Igor thinks he can make decisions for everyone,” he said, and Goro recoiled. There was something _black_ in his tone that Goro didn’t know how to explain. But it reminded him of…

He picked up Koromaru, who squirmed and kept growling at Minato as Goro backed towards the door. Minato didn’t seem bothered. “It’s all humanity’s fault, though. They create their own doom, over and over. Keeping them safe once clearly wasn’t enough. And you, all you managed to do was make it worse. What kind of Wild Card messes up so badly that he _helps_ the thing trying to destroy everyone? Is it any wonder we had to bring you here?”

_“What?”_ Goro said in disbelief. Koromaru was snarling, trying to wiggle away from him, and Goro just held him tighter because he had _no_ idea what was happening but he knew it was bad.

“Oh?” Minato smiled, cruel and sharp and curved like a sickle. “Did you think that we _loved_ you? Did you think that we were doing anything other than keeping an eye on you, to make sure that you didn’t slip up?”

Goro tried to breathe and couldn’t. It felt like there was a vice around his chest, keeping his lungs from expanding. He felt cold and nauseous, and just stared helplessly at Minato as the older Wild Card laughed. It was like a shot to the heart, instantly fatal and hitting his most deeply-buried insecurity. “M-Minato-san… What…” It didn’t make sense. Logically, he knew it didn’t make sense, he knew that it was more than that. They’d asked him to be in their wedding. They’d taken care of him, given him space, re-enrolled him in school so that he could still graduate and go to college. Of course they cared about him.

But so had all the foster parents, at first. Even if it was just for a few days. It had never taken this long for them to reject him before, but he’d been stupid to think that they wouldn’t eventually, hadn’t he? Everyone else did. He’d let his guard down, and now…

“Minato!” Ryoji’s voice barely filtered through Goro’s internal panic as he stumbled back into the dining room. Koromaru was going absolutely ballistic in his arms and finally managed to break away, but he didn’t charge at Minato like Goro thought he would. He just barked viciously at the blue-haired man standing in the kitchen doorway, and Ryoji stepped up beside a wide-eyed, mute Goro.

“You’re not Minato,” he accused, his voice like ice.

“Don’t you recognize the man you married?” Minato asked, but the golden glint in his eyes had gotten more prominent, and both Goro and Ryoji realized at the same moment that it was shadow-gold, not Velvet-gold. Minato advanced another step into the dining room, holding his hands out to them. “Ryoji.”

Ryoji took a sharp breath. “Don’t play with me. I know what you are. What did you do with Minato?”

“Perpetually in balance,” the thing wearing Minato’s face said. “That’s how it works, that’s what we agreed on. Mutual inaction. And when one of us is allowed to speak, _so is the other_. I know how powerful just words can be, you see. I wonder what he will do, without his Messiah? What any of you will do, knowing that even the strongest of you can collapse to Apathy?” 

“Apathy…” Ryoji murmured, then, louder, disbelieving, “You took it, you took his shadow and you’re _using_ him.”

It lifted its hands, glowing very faintly. “This human is quite interesting. Considering what he was, and these powers… How long will it take the effects to hit you, I wonder?”

It took Ryoji a second to realize what he was implying, and then he could feel himself going pale. “You… Stop this, this isn’t right! The balance is—”

“The balance broke the moment that I imprisoned this little human’s shadow.” An unsettling smile crossed Minato’s face, and the glow around his hands intensified. “Anything from now on is fair game, is it not?”

Ryoji realized all at once what the other was about to do. He moved on autopilot, snatching Koromaru up from the floor and grabbing Goro with a harsh yank on his arm so he could shove them back and put himself between them and the monster that was possessing his husband. Reality weighed heavily on his ability to do much of anything, but he reached for the frayed scraps of his bond with Minato, cast the one spell that was truly _his_ , and prayed that it would activate without knocking him out.

_“Moonless gown!”_

_“Freidyne!”_

The entire room filled with white light, and Ryoji dropped to his knees, taking Goro and Koromaru with him and crushing them against him. Goro was screaming, Koromaru was whimpering and whining, and Ryoji just squeezed his eyes shut and hoped that they weren’t about to be obliterated in nuclear fire.

He’d done good, stopping Minato from using freidyne in the dorm back at the beginning of that mess.

By the time the light faded, ‘Minato’ was gone, and Ryoji looked around with despair. All the walls of the dining room were scorched, the wall between the dining room and the kitchen was mostly gone, leaving just bits of drywall all over the kitchen, and there was scattered furniture and broken plates everywhere. But they were all alive, and despite the exhaustion settling into his bones, Ryoji was grateful for that. It was the one good thing he had right now.

He forcefully tried to get his racing heart under control, knowing that he had to step up and do something. Goro needed him, Koromaru needed him, he needed to call Yu, Mitsuru, _anyone…_

“Goro,” he began, putting a hand on the crumpled boy’s shoulder. Goro hadn’t moved, but at the touch, he snarled like a wounded animal.

“Don’t _touch_ me,” he spat, hunching further into himself. “Don’t touch me, leave me alone!”

Ryoji backed off, looking around frantically until he spotted Goro’s phone in the living room. It had been left on the coffee table when he went to get Koromaru from upstairs, and Ryoji stumbled over to scoop it up despite his limbs feeling like lead. He had to message the Phantom Thieves. He was only going to be able to keep it together for so long, and Goro needed support, even if it wasn’t from him.

**Chat: The Squad - Akira, Ryuji, Ann, and 6 others**

> _[Goro - 7:19pm] Is anyone there_
> 
> _[Ann - 7:20pm] I’m the only one free tonight_
> 
> _[Ann - 7:20pm] Everyone else is busy_
> 
> _[Ann - 7:20pm] I’m guessing you want Akira, but he’s at the movies with Morgana and Lavenza_
> 
> _[Ann - 7:20pm] They went to see And Now You Don’t_
> 
> _[Goro - 7:20pm] Ann-chan_
> 
> _[Ann - 7:21pm] Apparently it’s a heist movie about magician thieves and Akira thinks it’s hilarious b/c Morgana’s a magician or something? idk_
> 
> _[Ann - 7:21pm] wait when did you start using chan_
> 
> _[Goro - 7:22pm] This is Ryoji. listen, somehting happened and_
> 
> _[Goro - 7:22pm] goro’s not taking it well and I need help_
> 
> _[Goro - 7:22pm] do you knowhere the velvet room door is in shibuya?_
> 
> _[Ann - 7:23pm] oh my god is he okay???_
> 
> _[Ann - 7:23pm] I know where the door is but am I allowed in?_
> 
> _[Goro - 7:24pm] He’s not hurt. Physically. I’ll get liz to walk you through it should be fine since you’ve been in there before. I think_
> 
> _[Goro - 7:24pm] text Akira-kun so he sees it when the movies over. Thank you._
> 
> _[Ann - 7:25pm] I’ll be right there!!!!_

Ryoji set Goro’s phone back on the table and looked over at him. He was still on the floor, but Koromaru had nudged at him, and Goro had wrapped his arms around the dog and buried his face in his fur. He wasn’t okay, but at least he had Koromaru, and Ryoji pulled out his own phone before remembering that he shouldn’t text the Velvet residents anymore.

“He had to make this difficult, didn’t he?” he grumbled. He felt like he was going to pass out at any moment. Sheer willpower was keeping him on his feet. With one last glance at Goro, he headed for the Velvet door with heavy steps, just to make sure that Elizabeth would be watching for Ann. He knew walking someone through the Room was probably going against whatever Philemon was expecting of them now, but this was an emergency, and he really didn’t care what Philemon thought at this point.

All of this was his fault. Ryoji was sure of it.

***

Goro tried very hard not to pull on Koromaru’s fur as he hid his face. It wasn’t his fault Goro was a mess; he felt like the only one Goro could trust in this awful situation.

The part of him trying to be calm and detached about this knew, rationally, that everything Minato had said was bullshit, because it wasn’t Minato. It was some sort of monster possessing him. The Crawling Chaos itself, based on everything that had been discussed over the past few weeks. But the words had been chosen with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel, picking at wounds that he hadn’t realized were still so raw. He’d focused his energy in those early months on being afraid of what they were going to do with him, and then, after he felt safe and actually happy, on worries that _Mitsuru_ would be the one to decide he wasn’t good enough and take him away. But deep down, there had always been that nagging fear that they were just faking their goodwill, that one day he would make a mistake bad enough that they would turn on him.

But Koromaru’s cold nose against his jaw kept him grounded in the moment, and he finally staggered to his feet. Ryoji was nowhere to be seen, and in his absence Goro looked around helplessly before deciding on his course of action based on his growling stomach.

The fridge was covered in drywall dust, but otherwise unharmed, and Goro picked his way across the debris to open it up and pull out one of the remaining trays of sushi. With Koromaru following right by his side, he trudged back upstairs towards his room, feeling empty and drained. At least he had sushi, but based on past experience, it wasn’t going to help. Not really.

He and Koromaru had finished the tray and were laying in bed when his door opened hard enough to ricochet off the wall, making both of them jump as Ann barreled into the room to grab him in a hug. “Oh my god, are you okay?”

“Ann?” Goro wheezed, the breath knocked out of him, and Koromaru whined and pawed at Ann’s leg. “What are you doing here?”

“Arisato-san texted the group chat with your phone and I was the only one available,” Ann explained, loosening her grip enough to push Goro back by his shoulders and look him over. “What happened? I came through the Velvet Room and Arisato-san is down on the couch and looks like he’s half-dead. And your dining room looks like it exploded!”

Something about that nagged at Goro’s memories of what they had explained about their powers, and he murmured, “He cast a spell… He cast a spell in Reality; it must have wiped him out…” He was ashamed of not going down to check on his guardian, but...emotional spirals were hard to break, sometimes. At least without an outside force, like your fireball of a model friend shaking you by the shoulders.

“I thought only...god, how do you do this? Minato-san. I thought Minato-san was the only one that could do that,” she said.

“Ryoji-san can do the base-level spells, but that thing he cast...it was a lot stronger. I don’t know how he did it, but I would have died if he hadn’t.”

Ann’s eyes narrowed. “Explain. Now.”

So he did. Everything from the moment his guardians had returned from the Velvet Room. Ann listened with rapt attention right up until he got to the part where freidyne was cast. That was when she interrupted, blurting, “Wait, he tried to _kill you?_ ”

“I don’t think I was the target…” Goro murmured. His head felt clearer now that he’d talked to her, and he said with more conviction, “I don’t think he cared about collateral damage, because that’s one less Wild Card alive to stand against him. But I think the real target was Ryoji-san.”

“Ryoji-san’s not even a Wild Card, though. He’s Death; didn’t Minato-san or Kirijo-san or someone explain that he can’t even really die? All that would happen is that his human form would die. He’d still be around in meta-space, right?” Ann asked.

“His human form is the one tied to the Great Seal, though,” Goro countered. “And if Minato-san is already stricken with Apathy Syndrome and possession, it’s possible that the weight of keeping the Seal intact...has fallen entirely to Ryoji-san...” He trailed off as he realized the magnitude of what he was saying. The Great Seal had always been the two of them, together. He didn’t know what would happen if someone tried to maintain it alone.

Goro shoved himself out of bed, trying not to disturb Koromaru, who had fallen into a fitful sleep sometime during his explanation. Without another word, he headed for the stairs, barely aware of Ann trailing behind him as he hurried back down to the living room. As Ann had said, Ryoji was stretched out on the couch, and while the TV was on, he didn’t look like he was particularly paying attention. Goro hesitated, then walked over and sat down on the coffee table, within his line of sight. “Are you okay?”

Ryoji stirred and tried to crack a smile. “Yeah, that spell just takes a lot. And I’ve never done it outside of meta-space before. But, well… Maybe we wouldn’t have died, but I wasn’t taking that chance.” He hummed, wincing as he sat up. “I had to keep you and Koromaru safe.”

“That’s…” Goro felt even more guilty after that. “I’m sorry that I yelled at you. I just…”

“It’s okay, Goro-kun. I know,” Ryoji said, in that serious way that he adopted when things were important. “That wasn’t Minato. I just hope you know that. You’re still here because we care about you, not because we’re afraid that you’ll do anything. I swear to you.”

Goro sighed. “I know that. I _know_ that, I promise. It’s just...hard.”

“I understand.” Ryoji’s tired gaze drifted to Ann. “Thank you for coming, Ann-chan. I know it’s still a trip even with the door.”

“Of course I came,” Ann said, bracing a hand on her hip. “You didn’t explain _anything_ , really. But I get it now.” She came over to sit beside Goro on the table, so they were both facing him. “Goro said something about the Great Seal… Are you doing it by yourself now?”

Ryoji flinched. “I… Yeah. I am. We each gave up a fragment of ourselves to serve as the Seal, but if Minato’s shadow manifested enough for it to be snatched up, that fragment would have gone with it. I can feel it; it’s...well, that’s basically the point, I can feel it now. Before I couldn’t even tell, unless I actually focused on it, but now it’s more like a nagging ache. Not enough to hurt, but enough that you know it’s there. I’m...pretty sure if I was fully human it would have killed me or broken the Seal, to have to take over like that.”

“So what do we do?” Ann asked, as Goro sat stunned into silence by the idea that Ryoji could have just...died, while he’d gone upstairs and shut himself away. It would have been just like… He forced that thought away as quickly as it came and focused intently on Ann’s part of the conversation.

Ryoji, though, just looked sad at the question. “I… I don’t know. I still have to explain to Igor and the attendants. And I have to call Yu. And Mitsuru. And… Oh, god, I have to call Hamu-chan. She’s going to be so upset...”

Ann sat up straight, looking determined. “You look half-dead,” she said bluntly. “You need to rest for a little longer. I can stay here until Akira gets here, and after, if I have to. So don’t worry. Goro won’t be by himself.”

“Hey,” Goro protested, but it was halfhearted. “I can take care of myself.”

“You don’t _have to,_ though,” Ann insisted. “I’m here, and Koro-chan’s here, and we’re going to figure out how to fix this, as soon as you two have recovered a little.”

There was no standing up to the force of Takamaki Ann, and Goro just nodded. “Okay… Okay.”

While Ryoji crashed back to the couch, still wiped from the effort of calling up his barrier in Reality, Goro set about trying to right as much of the dining room furniture as he could, just to have something to focus on. It was scorched in places, and two of the chairs and all of the dishes were broken, but six intact chairs was better than nothing. They hadn’t used all eight in a long time. Ann, meanwhile, threw herself into sweeping up the kitchen with Koromaru manning the dustpan, though there wasn’t much they could do about the destroyed wall.

After almost an hour, Ryoji forced himself to his feet and pulled out his phone. “I’m going to go talk to Igor and call the others,” he said. “Are you two going to be okay?”

“We’ll be fine. Thank you, Ryoji-san,” Goro said quietly, and Ryoji laid a hand on his shoulder.

“We’ll get him back, I promise,” he said. Goro didn’t look convinced, but it was as close as they were going to get for the time being, and Ryoji headed for the Velvet Room with the march of someone that was going to war.

The Crawling Chaos wasn’t going to get away with this. Not if he could help it.

***

“What have you done?”

“I matched your move, and took my own.” The eerie smile on the blue-haired man’s face didn’t suit him at all.

Philemon was outwardly calm, but rage seethed in his voice as he said, “This is not part of our wagers. I will acknowledge that you were within your right to speak with them as I did, but to take actual possession of one of my Wild Cards; that goes far beyond an acceptable move.”

“Not just any Wild Card!” Triumph filled his voice. “Your strongest Wild Card! Your Messiah!” He threw back his head and laughed. “Why haven’t I tried this before? It’s the perfect move! Now you simply must take yours. I’m still playing fair. You have one direct move to use as you see fit. But more than one, and I’ll have free reign to take another as well.”

“As I said, this is not an acceptab—”

“Of course it is! All of this is simply chess. You play with the pieces, I act as the pieces. All I have done is capture your queen.”

There was little he could say against that. It was a fair point. “I will hold my move in reserve, then. Surely you will not object.”

“No. It adds a degree of suspense. Not knowing when you will come to their aid...if you come at all.”

“I cannot afford to stay in the background this time. I will take my move when I deem the time to be right.”

“Very well… Here’s to a memorable game!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everyone! I'm back from a successful NaNo month and ready to roll into continuing this. Especially since we're starting to get to all the Cool Mental Images that were why I did this in the first place, let's be real. :P That said, it's Christmastime, so it's going to be busy around here. I'm going to try to stick to either Wednesday or Saturday like before, hopefully.
> 
> (Just in case, I do want to confirm that the Tatsuya that appeared in Butterfly Cascade, despite not being named directly there either, was the real thing. There’s a few spots on the tropes page that made me realize my wording might have been a bit ambiguous.)
> 
> Next chapter: No one is okay. But with a little help, there might be something they can do about it.


	13. November 3rd-4th, 2017

By the time Akira arrived, frantic with worry, the kitchen had been mostly swept up, and Ann and Goro had returned to his room. Akira found them on the bed in front of Goro’s laptop, the sound of Featherman parody videos from Youcube filling the room, and didn’t even slow down. He just climbed up beside Goro and wrapped an arm around him. Goro sank against him, head on his shoulder, and it was only after the video ended that he asked, “What happened?”

Goro explained in the quiet, clipped tone he used to deliver facts, with Ann filling in any details that were missing from her end. Akira knew that meant he was probably saving up his emotions, but at this point, he wasn’t going to push. Things were bad. That was all he needed for now.

Eventually Ann started dozing off, tired from helping clean. She bid them both goodnight, knowing Akira had things covered, and retreated to one of the other bedrooms to crash. That was when Akira asked softly, “Are you doing okay?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Goro murmured. “I… Maybe tomorrow. Please.”

Akira nodded. “All right. If that’s what you want. I don’t think anything is going to happen tonight.” He kissed Goro on the forehead, then hopped up from the bed. “Hey, see if the Featherman Victory movie is online somewhere. I’ll go make us some drinks. Does that sound good?”

Goro made a faint sound of agreement, so Akira padded downstairs to the mostly-clean kitchen and pulled out two mugs. The kettle was unharmed, thankfully. Akira set it to heat up and dug a tin of instant coffee out of one of the cabinets, making a face at it. It wasn’t Leblanc’s, but it would do.

He’d been waiting for the water to boil for only a minute or two when Ryoji wandered into the kitchen, his eyes dull and movements lethargic, and observed, “Coffee this late?”

“I’m sorry,” Akira said quickly, taking an instinctive step away from the counter.

Ryoji’s bright blue eyes skimmed over his expression, and then he sighed heavily. “You and Goro-kun are just the same, aren’t you?” he said, something sad in his expression despite the hint of teasing in his tone.

Akira didn’t know what that meant, but Ryoji seemed upset, so he said, “I was just making some drinks to take back upstairs. I know I shouldn’t have used stuff without asking, but…”

He trailed off as Ryoji reached up to muffle a laugh. “I’m not upset at you, Akira-kun. You don’t have to apologize. You should know by now you’re allowed to use things from the kitchen.” His eyes still looked sad as he said, “Goro-kun was the same way when he got here. Say, is there enough water in there for another cup?”

“Yeah, I think so.” Akira got another mug down and prepped some more coffee. “Did you call everyone else?”

“Yeah. Hamu-chan and Liz wanted to go after him right now, but Mitsuru talked them down.” Ryoji leaned against the counter by the sink, looking more weary than Akira had ever seen him. “We don’t even know where he went. As much as I’d like to go, rushing won’t help anything, and I have the rest of you to take care of. Hamu-chan will be here tomorrow morning, and the others are going to wait to see what we decide.” As the kettle boiled, he moved to get the cream from the fridge. “Is Goro-kun all right?”

Akira sighed. “He’s being quiet. I’m sure it’ll all start coming out eventually, though. Ann’s going home in the morning, but I’m going to stick around until you figure out what to do.”

“You have school,” Ryoji said automatically.

“If this is as bad as I’m thinking, you’re going to need every Wild Card you can get,” Akira countered. He cracked a small smile. “And you’re not my dad, Arisato-san.”

“Not _yet_ I’m not,” Ryoji grumbled right back. “Don’t talk to your future father-in-law like that. Go to bed. Eat your vegetables.”

Akira’s eyes widened. He could _feel_ himself turning red, and he snatched up his and Goro’s coffees. “See you in the morning, Arisato-san!” he called over his shoulder as he fled the kitchen, hearing Ryoji choking on a laugh behind him.

It wasn’t like he’d never thought about it, especially considering he’d just attended a wedding. But having it said so bluntly like that... 

One emotional crisis at a time, please and thank you.

***

It was far too early in the morning when Goro woke with a gasp, dragged out of a nightmare feeling like he couldn’t draw a breath. There hadn’t been any ominous visions of a bad future in a while, but considering how stressful everything was right now, he couldn’t be surprised. But he was definitely shaken.

Trying to calm his pounding heart, he reached out and very carefully brushed Akira’s hair back from his forehead with shaking fingers. No blood. No bullet hole. Just smooth skin, furrowing with confusion as Akira stirred.

“Goro?” His voice was muffled and thick with sleep, but when his eyes fluttered open and he saw his boyfriend’s face he was instantly more alert. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m fine,” Goro whispered. “Just a nightmare.” He took a shaky breath and tried to smile, but Akira, as usual, saw right through him. He scooted close and wrapped his arms around Goro, tucking his head under his chin. Goro shivered and pressed his face against Akira’s neck, winding his arms around the thief’s waist and squeezing. Akira was warm. Akira was warm, and safe, and alive, and still here. He was still here.

“Do you want to talk now?” Akira murmured, one hand rubbing gentle fingertips against the back of Goro’s neck.

“Is this relapsing?” Goro asked with a hysterical giggle. “I was doing so well, and now I just feel afraid again.”

Akira took a deep breath in the dark, and Goro tried to match him. “What are you afraid of?” Akira asked softly.

They laid there as Goro choked on his words. Akira knew the feeling, the lump in your throat that felt like it was keeping everything in, like it would suffocate you if you tried to speak. He kept up the gentle circles against the nape of Goro’s neck, making sure his breathing was steady, and finally Goro croaked, “I just don’t want to lose you.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Akira soothed, but he could feel the tears that started to soak into the collar of his shirt.

“Minato-san wasn’t supposed to go anywhere, either, and look at what happened.” Goro hadn’t sounded so broken in a long time. “Everything good just gets taken away eventually; why should you be any different? This is why I didn’t want— It was better when I didn’t have anything to lose!”

Akira squeezed him so tight he let out a whine.

“Honey,” he said, pressing his lips to the top of Goro’s head, “can you really look me in the face and tell me that Ryoji-san might abandon you? Or any of our friends and family? We are going to fight tooth and nail to get Minato-san back. Things are bad right now, but we’ll figure this out. We have so much more help this time.”

Goro wanted to believe him. He desperately wanted to believe that things were going to be okay. But the embodiment of all human evil had possessed his guardian, and that was significantly different from finding a false god and simply destroying it.

Akira seemed to pick up on his unease. He pushed them both upright, pecking a kiss against Goro’s temple. “Put on a sweatshirt. We’re up anyway, might as well do something nice.”

“Hm?” Despite the questioning hum, he was already moving to obey, pulling out his red sweatshirt as Akira pulled the blanket and the duvet off the bed and bundled them up so he could carry them.

“I want to watch the sunrise with you. I know where the door to the roof is,” Akira said proudly.

“...it’s not hidden,” Goro mumbled, but he couldn’t help but smile. He let Akira lead him to the roof, spread out the duvet, and wrap the blanket around them. And as color began to bleed into the sky over Tatsumi Port Island, he decided that just this once it had been worth being woken up this early. Somehow, Akira always knew how to make him feel better.

***

When they came downstairs at last in search of hot coffee and breakfast, they found Ryoji in the living room with Hamuko and his unearthly-looking twin. She was scarfing down flapjacks like she hadn’t eaten in years, while Hamuko and Ryoji were just picking at their food.

“I told you they were still here,” Hamuko said when she saw them, and Ryoji deflated even farther than he already was.

“What?” Goro asked, squeezing Akira’s hand against the sudden feeling that he’d done something wrong.

Ryoji laughed weakly. “I went up to ask if you wanted breakfast, and neither of you were in bed.”

Akira bit his lip as he realized how that must have looked after the previous evening. “I’m so sorry. That’s my fault. I took us up to the roof to watch the sunrise because we woke up early.”

“It’s okay. I think we’re all a little on-edge right now.” Ryoji got up. “I’ll go get you guys breakfast. Just wait here for a minute.”

As he vanished into the kitchen, Goro and Akira took a seat on the couch beside Hamuko, who kept shooting them concerned glances. Like Ryoji, she’d almost immediately accepted the idea of Goro as part of the family, and she knew this whole situation had to be upsetting for her ‘nephew’. Goro, though, chose to focus on Ryoji’s twin. “You were at the wedding, right? Ke—”

“Kaori,” she interrupted him. “Mochizuki Kaori. I figured I’d better pick a human name if I’m gonna be in human form, plus I don’t need you calling me a version of Death if we’re going to do this the way I think we are.”

“Kaori-san.” Goro nodded, pointedly ignoring that her canines were very sharp-looking. Human form didn’t mean human. “Do we know what we’re doing, or is this a strategy meeting?”

She pointed at the kitchen. “Let him come back; he summoned me, but I don’t think he’s going to like what I have to say.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Hamuko said. “Whatever it takes, we’ll do it.”

“...humans have so much bravado,” Kaori muttered, and stuffed another flapjack in her mouth.

Once Ryoji came back with breakfast for the two Thieves, Kaori settled back into her chair with a deep sigh. “Okay, so… You want to know how to get Minato back from the Crawling Chaos. I hope you realize it’s complete and utter stupidity.”

“Like Aragaki-san said, it doesn’t matter,” Akira said. “We have to try.” 

“Yes, well, I suppose of everyone, you’re one of the most prepared for something like this, little Trickster,” Kaori huffed. “The Crawling Chaos has taken Minato’s body and shadow to the Deepscape. His deal with Philemon keeps him from making another move in Reality for now, but without the Universe, things are going to be fragile enough even without him picking at things.”

“Deepscape?”

Kaori hummed. “How to explain…? Humanity’s unconsciousness is basically limitless. You guys have just scratched the surface, really, wandering around the Sea of Souls. I think Igor has described it before, that the things you’ve seen, Mementos and Izanami’s dungeon hub… They’re just ‘islands’ in the Sea. And the Velvet Room is like the dock that gives access. So, the Deepscape…”

“That’s what’s beneath the surface,” Goro said quietly. “Correct? A level deeper than what we’ve seen so far. And I can only imagine that if personas come from the surface of the Sea of Souls, things such as Philemon and his counterpart come from deeper.”

“I’ve got such a smart nephew.” Kaori grinned, her smile fanged, and continued, “Basically, yeah. How personas work is a discussion for another time, but you’re mostly right. The Greater Concepts inhabit the Deepscape. For the most part. Mom and Dad are special cases, because Mom was sealed in the moon, and Dad was called out of the abyss by humanity.”

“So all we have to do is go to the Deepscape, find the Crawling Chaos, and get my brother back!” Hamuko declared.

Ryoji, who had been remarkably quiet so far, shook his head. “You say that like it’s simple, but you don’t know what’s down there. Most of the rest of my siblings, for one, and they aren’t all as nice as Keres, Hemera, and Aether. Gods and monsters… We’re not talking about normal shadows; we’re talking about pretty much the real thing. Humanity has internalized a lot of stories...and a lot of fears.” He looked at each of them, one after another. “I’m going, regardless. I made my vows. And I’m going to ask for help, but… I won’t think badly of any of you if you don’t want to go. This is… Well, it’s like starting with Yaldabaoth and working up from there.”

“I’m going,” Hamuko and Goro said at the same time.

“If he’s going, I’m going,” Akira added.

That managed to get a smile out of Ryoji. “I figured. In that case, I need to make some phone calls and we all need to get ready. This isn’t going to be easy, but… We’ll figure it out.”

Starting with something as bad as Yaldabaoth and only getting worse sounded terrible, but there was no other option than to go and face it. None of them were leaving Minato in the hands of the Crawling Chaos, not when there was still a chance to win him back.

When the stakes were this personal, all they could do was push forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> An hour past midnight is still Saturday because I haven't slept yet and time is an illusion (and so are schedules apparently). And I don't feel like waiting for Wednesday. Christmas is murder on writing time. X'D
> 
> I keep joking about driving the party bus into the abyss, but now we're actually heading into the abyss for real. I'm taking a _lot_ of liberties with some pretty obscure canon that, as far as I know, was never localized, so bear with me. ~~At this rate I'm gonna need another marathon headcanon post to get my facts all organized.~~ It's all for fun, anyway~
> 
> Next chapter: A silver key, a step beneath the surface, and another mandala. Time to see what's lurking under the Sea.


	14. November 6th, 2017

After a day’s worth of planning and asking for help, the nine members of the rescue team assembled in the Velvet Room. The Wild Cards needed to set up their persona teams, since they wouldn’t have access to the room once they entered the Deepscape, and everyone else just needed to prepare mentally. They’d stocked up on medicine and other supplies, and everyone was ready to go, though it hadn’t been easy getting to that point.

* * *

_“You must be Narukami.”_

_Despite Akira’s insistence that he could handle asking Futaba to come with them on his own, Yu had tagged along, citing that he could play backup as a reasonable adult figure. Akira still wasn’t sure if early-twenties counted as ‘adult’, but he walked into Leblanc looking for Futaba with Yu in his wake, only to be surprised when Sojiro recognized the other Wild Card._

_“I am, but how did you know, Sakura-san?”_

_“Your uncle talked about you a lot while he was in town,” Sojiro said. “Go on, have a seat and tell me what’s going on. I’m sure you’re not here for coffee with that look on your face.”_

_“Actually, we needed to talk to Futaba,” Akira said, taking the counter seat beside her, and she paused wolfing down curry to ask curiously, “Oh, is this about Goro? Is he doing okay?”_

_Akira and Yu explained in simplified terms what had happened to Minato. Sojiro and Futaba were horrified, especially knowing what it would have done to Goro to lose a parental figure in that way. So when Akira started to explain that they wanted Futaba’s help, she agreed right away._

_“Of **course** I’ll help get Goro’s dad back,” she said firmly. “Just tell me when!”_

_“Hang on one second,” Sojiro said. “You’re going into some mental hell full of monsters for this? Futaba, I don’t know…”_

_“Daaaaad, we beat a **god**. We’ll be fine!” Futaba said._

_“A **false** god.”_

_Yu tried to look responsible. “We’ll look after her, Sakura-san. While we do have other navigators, Sakura-chan is the most mobile, so we decided she would be the safest to bring along.”_

_“You wanted to bring Kujikawa-san and got outvoted,” Akira pointed out._

_“Kurusu-kun…” Yu began warningly, but Sojiro shook his head._

_“Don’t get in a brawl in my cafe,” he said, and ignored both of them objecting that they weren’t fighting to focus on Futaba instead. “You’re going to go no matter what I say, right?”_

_She nodded determinedly, and he sighed. “Narukami,” he said, “if anything happens to my kids, I’m holding you responsible.”_

_Yu hesitated, then said, “They’ll come home safe, Sakura-san. I promise.”_

* * *

With Sojiro pacified and Futaba in agreement, they’d gotten the last of their chosen companions together, deciding to meet in the Velvet Room the following day. Everyone that had been asked had said yes without hesitation. It was harder to explain to people that they _couldn’t_ come. All of the former members of S.E.E.S. were prepared to charge straight into the unknown to get back their friend. Eventually, though, Ryoji and Hamuko managed to convince them that a larger group would draw more attention and be more dangerous. They asked just Aigis to come along, knowing that she would be the best backup they could ask for.

“Yu-san?” Aigis asked. He looked up from where he was watching Akira and Goro comb through their compendiums, and she gestured stiffly to where Marie and Sho were watching each other from their individual chairs. “Why did you bring Minazuki-san?”

“He asked to come,” Yu said with a slight shrug, and Sho’s gaze snapped to them like he knew he was being talked about.

He walked over, a slight swagger in his step, and leaned a hand on his hip. “Look. I know you don’t actually trust me after that whole thing with Labrys, but… I haven’t seen Narukami look as upset as he did yesterday since he was trying to stop me ending the world. And Arisato’s a good guy. So I want to help.”

“Plus,” Elizabeth said eagerly, butting in, “Minazuki-san has Wild Card potential as well. Perhaps this will unlock his latent abilities!”

“I already turned you people down once,” Sho huffed. “I’m fine with just Tsukiyomi.”

With Akira and Goro, Aigis and Hamuko, Sho and Marie, Yu, and Futaba and Kaori to help navigate, Ryoji was sure they would be fine. Even if some of them were probably going to bicker. They were all united in a common goal: saving Minato from the Crawling Chaos. He’d called Maya, too, to let her know what was going on, so that the reserve members in Sumaru could keep an eye out for any of Nyarlathotep’s influence in reality in case he decided to break the rules further. Maya had fretted, but ultimately reminded them to stay positive and on track, and not to get misled by the things they might encounter.

As Lavenza opened Goro’s compendium, searching through his collection of angels, Kaori swiped Minato’s and Yu’s and flopped into an armchair, propping Yu’s up and beginning to flip through it.

“Er, Kaori-san…” Margaret began, but Kaori waved her off.

“It’s fine, sis-in-law. I’m not hurting anything.”

As Margaret stopped to puzzle out the familial moniker, Kaori kept reading, making faces at different pages. Ryoji watched her, a small smile on his face, but it slipped when she stopped on a particular page and frowned. With a glance up at him, she closed Yu’s compendium and flipped open Minato’s instead, paging through until she seemingly found what she was looking for, and her frown deepened. “You’re just absolutely determined to make this as dangerous as possible, aren’t you?”

“What do you mean?” Ryoji asked.

“Honestly. You’re taking two Aeon arcanas into battle with you? You’re basically _asking_ to get squashed.” Kaori slammed the compendium and glared at him. “Really not forward to leading your group if you keep making it harder.”

“That’s not what that means!” Ryoji objected. “We don’t know what any of that means.”

“What what means?” Futaba asked.

Kaori got up, shifting from foot to foot anxiously. _“That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons even death may die,”_ she recited, and almost everyone present shivered without completely understanding why. Kaori looked around at them all, then back to Ryoji. “It’s from the Necronomicon, as my brother well knows. And yeah, we don’t know if it’s referring to people when it says ‘strange aeons’, but do you really want to take that chance? Don’t you want to be as careful as possible so that you don’t get murdered before you even make it to Minato?”

“No one’s going to get murdered,” Ryoji huffed. “Look, if I’m taking anyone into battle to save Mina, it’s Aigis, because she’s almost more protective of him than I am, and I know she’ll have my back.”

“Ryoji-san…” Aigis murmured.

“I mean it,” he insisted. “I wouldn’t want anyone else. And Marie’s technically _from_ the Deepscape, so she’ll be able to help us, too. I’m not making this decision lightly.”

Kaori handed the compendiums back to Margaret. “All right. This is your party. Just remember I tried to warn you.”

Once Goro was happy with his choice of personas, they all gathered in front of Igor’s desk, ready to head out at last. The Master of the Velvet Room’s ever-present smile had faded, and he looked at all of them with a grave expression.

“I do not know how to explain how deeply I regret what has happened,” he said. “I could not have imagined this outcome, and I am certain this is not what my master intended either.”

“Does that mean he’s going to help us?” Sho snarked, and Akira _wished_ he had the nerve to say something like that to Igor’s face.

“So long as he does not make another move, the Crawling Chaos will not be able to act. They are twisted rules, but they are rules that are followed to the letter, if not the spirit.” Igor sighed. “I have faith in all of you… Bring him home safely. Please.”

Ryoji had never fancied himself a leader. Had never assumed it would fall to him. That was always someone else’s job. Mitsuru’s, Yu’s, Hamuko’s...and Minato’s, as much as Minato didn’t like it. Ryoji was always relegated to support, other than his brief stint as an antagonist. But this was something he had to do. Something he had to lead. He was going to get his husband back and bring everyone home, whatever it took.

***

The Sea of Souls was quiet, glimmering in a mockery of the darkness lurking beneath the surface. Kaori stepped forward in front of the others and turned back to face them, lips twisted into a worried frown.

“Last chance to turn back,” she said. “Once we go below, there won’t be an easy way to retreat. And we can’t come back just because one person chickens out.”

“We knew what we were getting into when we agreed to come,” Hamuko said shortly. Her usual cheery nature was subdued by the gravity of their mission, and she hovered near Ryoji and the Thieves, naginata clutched in one hand. “And he’s all in one piece. It’ll be fine.”

“Just because you’re not looking for trapezohedrons doesn’t mean this will be any easier. I don’t think you understood completely,” Kaori replied. “This is a realm of cosmic entities, abstract envisionings… Humanity’s most primal concepts, twisted into forms you couldn’t begin to comprehend unless they allow it. Without personas to help protect your sanity, I wouldn’t have even agreed to take anyone other than Ryoji and Marie.”

Futaba shrugged from beside Akira. “Well, the faster we get in there, the faster we get Arisato-san and get out, right?”

Kaori sighed heavily. “You all are far too confident.” She turned away, gesturing like the Velvet residents did to create a door. But the door that she made was a grand arched gate sealed with an intricate lock. From nowhere she pulled a shining silver key, and as she unlocked the door, she called over her shoulder, “Just...don’t stare at the gate guardian for too long. He won’t hurt you, but, uh… Yeah. Eldritch beings and all that.”

There was a brief debate over who was going first through the gate other than Ryoji and Kaori. Eventually they settled on a closely-knit formation with their navigator in the center, and stepped through into a vast unknown.

The other side of the gate was black as night save for a small, illuminated section of the floor that led to another door, plain and as grey as the Velvet door was blue. All along one wall was a shimmering curtain, and visible through it was the silhouette of a man.

“Is that the gate guardian?” Aigis asked, and Kaori nodded stiffly.

“Just...acknowledge him, and walk on by,” she said, lifting a hand in a half-wave before heading straight for the grey door.

Hamuko hesitated. “But who is he?”

“Not anyone you want to mess with if you want to stay sane.” Kaori’s steps faltered, and she turned back to more-actively herd them towards the door. “The things here are...not all malicious. They aren’t evil. They don’t actively want to hurt you. But they’re just so incomprehensible that they might cause damage anyway. And I’m not dragging you out of here as drooling vegetables.”

“Normally I’d be all in favor of investigating, but I stole a book from Akira about all sorts of eldritch stuff, and we should _definitely_ leave that alone,” Futaba said.

Akira gaped at her. “ _You’re_ the reason I couldn’t find that book! Do you know how many late fees I got?”

In the midst of their bickering, they passed through the door, and as they emerged into the open area on the other side, the three Thieves found themselves in their familiar thief gear, to the surprise of everyone except Ryoji, who...mostly understood what was going on.

“What the hell?” Sho exclaimed, at the same time as Aigis asked, “Is there some significance to your clothes changing?”

“We’re a threat,” Akira said, glancing at Kaori. “Even if most of the things here don’t want to hurt us, _something_ is unhappy that we’re here, and I bet I know what it is.”

They all looked around, taking in the world that they had found themselves in. They were standing on a tower in a vast, inky void. Other, similar towers were visible in the distance, and walkways seemingly made of lighted tiles bridged the spaces between them. Far below, unseen things writhed and roiled in the darkness, and all of them instinctively stepped closer to the center, unwilling to even entertain the idea of falling off.

“Not unhappy, I don’t think,” Ryoji murmured. “We’re a threat, but we’re in his domain. He’d be pleased to watch us all fail.”

Marie, one hand twined with Yu’s, huffed. “We just won’t fail, then,” she said, and looked over at Kaori.

“So. Where are we going first?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hell yeah it's basically still Saturday hallelujah.
> 
> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, guys. Sorry this took so long. Things have been busy and life is tiring. ^_^;;;
> 
> There are some _very_ loose interpretations of things on the way, which really shouldn't be a surprise considering how cavalier I've been with every other kind of mythology. I'm slowly working my way towards the Cool Mental Image that I ruined the wedding for in the first place. XDDD


	15. November ???, 2017

Kadath Mandala, as Kaori called it, was quiet. Similar to the Sea of Souls, there was an underlying sound the whole time, but it was a low, droning sound rather than the ethereal singing noise of the Sea.

“If mandalas are round, doesn’t that mean we’re going to end up back where we started if we keep going?” Futaba asked. Prometheus bobbed along above her head, beach-ball-sized and spinning slowly as it kept up a shallow scan around their immediate area. They hadn’t run into anything threatening yet, but that could change at any moment as they ventured farther into the Deepscape.

“The calamity mandala in Magatsu Inaba wasn’t round, so it might just be a name,” Yu said.

Kaori shrugged. “It’s roughly two interlocking circles of towers,” she explained. “We’re heading for the far one. This is just the shallows; the Crawling Chaos and Lord Philemon reside on a level deeper than even this.”

The walkways of light between the towers had been unnerving when the group first ventured out, but proved solid enough to ease their worries after a few feet. Marie kept glancing back over her shoulder, as if expecting the gate guardian to be pursuing them, but kept pace with Yu near the front of the group easily enough. It was a delicate peace among them. They traveled in relative silence, mostly alert for anything that might change around them as they moved forward. Hamuko chatted quietly with Sho about the blood rain in Tokyo, since he hadn’t followed Yu when the Shadow Operatives assembled. Akira and Goro walked quietly hand-in-hand a step behind Futaba, ready to leap to her defense if necessary. Aigis was as close to Hamuko as possible without being in the way. And Ryoji walked near the middle, drooped like there was a weight holding him down.

As they stepped safely onto the tile flooring of the next tower, Prometheus began to flash with warning colors, and Futaba stopped abruptly. “Guys, there’s something here. I’m picking up a lot of readings.”

“I don’t see anything,” Hamuko began, but then her eyes widened as dripping, writhing creatures began to emerge from the cracks between the tiles, from over the sides of the tower, anywhere there seemed to be space. They looked like they were trapped in the moment of transformation between the cognitive form of a shadow and their true form: grasping tendrils of darkness in a writhing mass, a formless blob of consciousness oozing into a threatening shape.

Futaba stepped back, letting the rest take the lead. “I don’t understand…” she said. “They’re definitely shadows, but...what’s wrong with them?”

“The farther into the subconscious you get, the less defined things are,” Kaori said, pulling a scythe from nowhere. “You either get beings so incomprehensible that just being in their presence causes damage, or you get this, something half-formed.”

“Nothing we can’t handle,” Sho said, sword already in hand, and Hamuko pushed Ryoji back.

“Let us deal with them,” she insisted. “The Seal is weighing on you enough without worrying about fighting. You brought all of us along for a reason.”

“We can keep an eye on everything,” Futaba added. “We’re the secret weapon!”

Ryoji, despite his instinct to insist he was fine, stepped back to watch with Futaba as the others spread out to surround the forming shadows. The shadows didn’t move quickly, but with no discernable features, it was hard to tell where they were planning to strike. Sho lashed out almost immediately with Tsukiyomi, while Hamuko charged forward, naginata at the ready and Orpheus at her back.

“I’m not picking up that they null anything,” Futaba called. “So go for it!”

If we can herd them all to one side, that’ll be better than having the edges of the tower at our backs,” Yu said. “Kurusu-kun, Akechi-kun, can you hit them from that side? We’ll drive them towards the opposite edge.”

“Got it!” Divine Judgement and eigaon filled the air as they moved in the direction Yu had indicated, willing to take orders for now in the interest of dealing with the immediate threat. Kaori followed, darting close in the aftermath of the spell to drive them back farther with her scythe.

Aigis did her best to riddle as many as she could with bullets, but it was clear that it wasn’t doing as much as the magic.

“Physical attacks do not seem to be effective,” she said, as the shadows wobbled from the impact but didn’t look particularly damaged beyond what had already been done.

“These things are barely formed, I guess they’re not going to react much if you whack them,” Marie said. “Almighty is probably gonna be our best bet, although… Yu, move!” She lifted a hand as Yu dodged out of the way, calling, “Izanami!”

The others stared in wonder as a silvery-blue armored figure, similar to Yu’s Izanagi, formed above her head. Marie had hung back in reserve during the battle in Tokyo, so it was the first time most of them had really seen her in action outside of sparring, but to anyone that knew Ryoji it wasn’t surprising that her powers manifested as a persona while she was in human form.

She pointed at the huddle of writhing shadows. “ _Aquadyne!_ ”

A torrent of water slammed into them, driving them back towards the edges of the platform. Marie grinned, continuing, “ _Hot Lightning!_ ”

Thunderbolts crackled down upon the pile, and when the group blinked the spots from their eyes, they realized the shadows were twitching and vibrating, squirming in awkward, confused movements.

“They’re dizzy!” Futaba called. “This is your chance!”

Yu and Sho charged forward immediately, with Kaori and Goro a step behind. With the wide range of their blades, any of the shadows that didn’t dissolve and vanish were driven back over the edge of the platform, sending them plummeting into the vast void below. Goro watched them fall with wide eyes, and when they were out of sight he took a nervous step back.

“What...happens if we fall?” he asked.

“If you land in the unconscious abyss, we’re probably not getting you back,” Kaori said flippantly, and Ryoji elbowed her as he and Futaba rejoined the group.

“No one is landing in the abyss,” he said firmly, despite the slight wince he tried to cover. “I won’t let any of you fall. We’re here to get someone back, not lose anyone else.”

***

They followed the criss-crossing paths on a mostly straight shot through the center of the mandala, occasionally fighting off more groups of the strange, half-formed shadows. As the last tower came into view, a great golden gate standing on the far side, Kaori groaned.

“Bastard. He’s taken the key out of the gate.” She pointed at a round depression in the center, where there was clearly some sort of medallion missing. “He shouldn’t be allowed to do that.”

“Why is there even a key to the gate in the first place?” Hamuko asked. “Why would you _need_ one down here?”

“Ask humanity. The perception is that big fancy gates need big fancy locks. Hence, this big door in our way.”

Ryoji hummed thoughtfully. “I wonder if that’s why the Seal manifested with that gaudy statue?”

“Probably.” Kaori looked back at Futaba. “Hey, do you think you can scan and see where the halves ended up? They can’t have gone far, but I’m really hoping we don’t have to spend much more time here.”

“Yeah. Lemme make it full-sized, though.” Futaba tossed the small version of Prometheus into the air, where it grew back to its proper size and allowed her to vanish inside. The group looked up, watching the colored lights run along the outside of the sphere, and then Futaba’s voice said, **“I’m picking up two different signals. Closer to the middle, but on opposite edges.”**

“Ughhhhhhh. I was really hoping we could just stick to the middle.” Kaori looked around at the group, eyeing them. “We probably have enough people to split up and go grab them, to make it go faster, but…”

“Why did you want to stick to the middle?” Hamuko asked.

Marie spoke up then. “Because in this iteration of the mandala, you’re more likely to run into something unpleasant on the edges. My question is, why are you worried? I’ve seen persona-users fight their way through before. And without me, there’s one less potential thing to fight.”

Kaori fixed her with a flat look. “Removing one threat doesn’t make the others any less dangerous,” she said. “And people have given a lot more belief to some of those terrors than they used to.”

“Oh, come on, he’s not even on this level,” Marie said.

“It’s just not worth taking chances,” Kaori huffed.

The others were watching the discussion like a tennis match, trying to keep up with what was going on. But Marie just shrugged and said, “Okay, we’ll make sure not to fight if anything comes up. _Ia fhtagn_.”

Futaba dropped back out of Prometheus, eyes wide. “Wait, wait, wait, hang on, is _Cthulhu_ down here? I thought the story was that he was asleep at the bottom of the Pacific or something.”

“Is he?” Kaori asked, her inhumanly blue eyes bright as she looked at Futaba, and Ryoji cut between them.

“Careful,” he admonished gently. “You were told, I think, how cognition affects reality. The Great Ones reside here in the Deepscape, but Nyx and Erebus did once, as well, and humanity was able to call them out.”

“So if enough people believe it, Cthulhu could show up to destroy the world?” Sho asked, fascinated.

Ryoji smiled tightly. “Isn’t that basically what always happens anyway? People’s beliefs drift too far to an extreme and conjure up a monster?”

Akira walked up behind Futaba and settled his hands solidly on her shoulders. “We already fought a god less than a year ago. Let’s _not_ make any eldritch horrors angry anytime soon. Please.”

“Fine, fine. But if we get near Cthulhu, I want to see,” Futaba grumbled.

Kaori opened her mouth, prepared to remind Futaba that looking at any of the Great Ones would drive her insane in a matter of minutes even with the protection offered by her persona. But then she sighed. It wasn’t worth it. They could deal with that if it actually came up; for now, they needed to focus on the halves of the gate key. “Okay, so if we split up five and five, who’s going where?”

There was a lengthy debate about the assembly of the two teams. Ryoji and Futaba, currently unable to attack directly, were relegated to opposite teams, as well as Kaori and Marie, who knew the most about the Deepscape. Yu and Sho took one side, Hamuko and Aigis took the other, and no one mentioned that Kaori was doing her best to keep Aigis and Marie on a different team from her and Ryoji. And while that unfortunately left Akira and Goro on opposite teams, neither of them were going to complain.

“Come back safe,” Akira said, squeezing his hand.

“I will. Take care of Futaba,” Goro replied. He was going with Yu, Sho, Kaori, and Ryoji to spare Akira having to deal with Yu in closer quarters.

“I can take care of myself, thank you,” Futaba interrupted, elbowing Goro. “C’mon, lovebirds, let’s go before you two trigger a million death flags with a tearful goodbye.”

Goro elbowed back, and the groups set off, trying to keep focused on the destinations and not the yawning void stretching beyond the safety of the walkways.

***

There was silence among the little group for a while, all of them trying to stay alert, but eventually Aigis asked, “Marie-san, you lived here once, correct?”

“Yep,” Marie replied. “Until I felt humanity’s desires calling me up to the surface of the Sea, like Nyx and Erebus.”

“And you’ve seen people like us down here?” Aigis tilted her head curiously. “Other humans?”

Marie nodded. “You’re not the first to think you can make it down here. The former Trickster’s team came looking for the pieces of their friend’s shattered heart, and they succeeded. Although, it was less dangerous then. A lot of the Old Ones weren’t as well-known in normal culture as they are today, so their power was weaker. Less conceptualized. I wouldn’t want to go up against Cthulhu now, that’s for sure.”

“But they made it,” Hamuko prodded. “They got their friend back. Their friend was okay?”

“Mhm. Not without a fight, though. And they fought just an avatar of the Crawling Chaos. We’re going after the real thing.”

“With all of Minato-san’s powers…” Akira mumbled.

“Do we even know how we’re going to make him be not-possessed?” Futaba huffed.

Silence fell, until Hamuko said, with as much bravado as she could muster, “I’m sure Kaori-san and Ryoji have an idea of what to do! And even if they don’t, we’ll figure something out. We’re not leaving without him.”

“There is someone waiting up ahead,” Aigis said suddenly, pointing to the tower that they were quickly approaching.

It was what looked like a man in a patchwork of colors, an oversized hood shadowing his face. Compared to the general gloom of the Deepscape so far, he stuck out like a beacon, and the five persona-users stopped warily at the end of the bridge. The man looked up, flashing them a scarecrow’s lopsided smile beneath wild dark hair and shadow-gold eyes, and crowed, “Izanami! The _company_ you’re keeping nowadays!”

Marie edged her way to the front of the group. “Momus. Nice to see you again. I’m kinda busy right now, so…”

“Oh, I know. You’re looking for this, right?” Momus held up half of a golden medallion, the jagged edge where it would slot into its counterpart glinting sharply in the odd, watery light of the Deepscape.

“Lot of nerve you have poking at me for the company I keep, then,” Marie huffed. “Did _he_ put you up to holding onto that?”

“It seemed like fun,” Momus laughed. “Just like it seemed like fun to take human form for once. Come on, Izanami, it’s been so long since Oizys and I have gotten to be part of something. Humanity isn’t going to call up misery and mockery into their world anytime soon.” He flipped the half-medallion over in his hands before tucking it somewhere under his cloak. “Let’s see how _badly_ you want this, hm?”

“If you want a fight, you’ve got one.” Marie gestured at Hamuko. “If I don’t kick your ass, your sister-in-law and our other friends will.”

“That’s right!” Hamuko cried, and Akira and Aigis stepped up to flank her.

Momus laughed. “Thanatos might want to follow silly human traditions, but those kind of attachments are worthless here. There’s only strength, and those with the will to survive!” He threw up a hand gloved in red and gold, and a massive fireball began to form. _“Blazing Hell!”_

The fireball burst into a massive wave of fire spreading out from where Momus was standing, and all of them staggered as it rushed over them. Futaba ducked back, making sure her hair wasn’t on fire and leaping into Prometheus to run a scan as quickly as she could. Aigis laid down cover fire as colors spiralled across the nav persona’s surface, and none of them took their eyes off the patchworked figure, ready for anything he might try.

**“He’s got light and fire affinity!”** she called. **“Focus on curse and...geeze, does anyone other than Kusumi-san have water spells? I’d never seen those ‘til that last battle.”**

“They’re not as common,” Hamuko called back, as they all spread out to focus on their enemy, “but it’s possible to have them as an affinity. And Minato knows them, of course. He knows everything.”

“Can we worry about the magic lesson later?” Akira yelped, dodging away from the columns of light that slammed down where he had been standing. A roll ended with him back on his feet, and he ripped off his mask with a cry. “Arsène, _eigaon!_ ”

The spell wasn’t a direct hit; Momus was as light on his feet as any phantom thief and was dodging their attacks with a grin. But the impact was enough to cause him to stumble, and Hamuko followed up immediately. “Girimehkala, _mudoon!_ ”

That one nailed him squarely from above, but rather than go down, Momus just giggled. “Oh, that’s cute that you think a knockout spell will work on a greater concept. Maybe on the Fates or one of my lesser siblings, but not me~ You, though…”

“Oh, hell!” Hamuko tried to throw up makarakarn before mahamaon landed, but she wasn’t quite quick enough. The only victim ended up being Akira, who was nailed right in his weakness and went down like a stone. Aigis caught him before he could slam into the floor, waving the others to keep going while she revived him.

“That boy, what kind of life has he had to give him a curse affinity?” Momus laughed. He lunged for Marie, revealing wicked claws from beneath his cloak, and she whipped an extendable staff off of her hip and let it snap to its full length as she blocked the swipe.

“Pick on someone your own level, not the kid,” she hissed.

“That ‘kid’ is down here, isn’t he? Besides, it’s not my fault that his weakness is so exploitable!” Momus was forced to jump back as Marie sent a jolt of lightning down the staff, and she growled with frustration.

It took a long time to wear him down. They all knew how powerful Ryoji and Marie were in human form; this was just as difficult. But they couldn’t give up. He had half of the gate key, and they weren’t leaving without the means to open the path to go deeper. Futaba kept up their buffs as best she could, but even with four of them it was a close match.

Shrugging off Hamuko, who’d managed to stab her naginata through his cloak, Momus bounced back, dancing from foot to foot. “You’re all so close! It’s probably not enough, though~” A red glow surrounded him as he practically cackled, _“Ragnarok!”_

“Izanami, _Aquary Tide!_ ” Marie cried, trying to counter. The fire and water spells collided in midair, sending out torrents of steam, and in a flash of inspiration, Hamuko grabbed Aigis and Akira.

“I have an idea…”

After the fastest explanation ever, Hamuko, wielding Akira’s gun, advanced into the resulting cloud and opened fire on the Embodiment of Mockery as his silhouette became visible. But Momus just laughed, deflecting the bullets with deft claws.

“Not the best plan...sister-in-law, was it?” he giggled. “You’re not going to claim victory like that.”

“No, I’m not,” Hamuko said, still firing. “He is.”

Momus didn’t look up in time, distracted by the bullets, and Akira landed square on top of him, feet first. He’d been leery of letting Aigis toss him, but it was the best plan they had, and the momentum carried them both to the floor and let him press his knife up under Momus’s chin. “Give us the key, or you’re going to find it _very_ hard to keep talking.”

A startled laugh escaped the pinned man. “Wow. That was quick thinking! You’re all pretty good. I probably should have been fighting seriously all along.”

“What?” Akira drew back, but not fast enough, as the form below him burst and grew, colorblocked cloak extending and stretching. It was so easy to forget that the person they were fighting wasn’t human. So easy to forget that underneath, he was a concept, greater than most of them. Before he could manage to get away, Akira found himself wrapped in the coils of what looked like some kind of Chinese dragon, though much closer to the stylized puppet versions used in parades than a ‘real’ dragon.

“Akira!” Hamuko shouted. “Put him down, you bastard!”

“I can’t fire without risking hitting Akira-kun,” Aigis said, guns trained on the dragon.

Marie and Futaba said nothing, though Prometheus edged closer to the dragon, as if hoping she could bring him into the persona with her. But to their surprise, Momus just laughed, a booming, overwhelming sound.

“I haven’t had this much fun in decades!” he declared. “You guys put up a really good fight!”

Akira was holding his breath, wide-eyed, and the dragon slowly lowered him back to the ground. He wobbled and sank to his knees as he touched the floor, and Momus lowered his tail down in front of him. The medallion piece glimmered, tucked into a band around his tail. “Well, go on. You earned it for sheer nerve. That last move was good.”

Wary of some kind of trick, Akira reached very slowly to take the medallion, expecting it to be yanked out of his grasp at any second. But Momus let him take it, and then floated back up away from them. “I wonder how the rest of them are dealing with Oizys. I hope she’s having as much fun as I did.”

**“We aren’t here to be your entertainment, you know,”** Futaba huffed. Prometheus returned to ground-level, and she hopped out beside Akira. “You could have told us you weren’t actually trying to kill us!”

“Then you wouldn’t have fought as hard,” Momus said, as if that explained everything. “And just because I’m not trying to kill you, doesn’t mean other things won’t. Don’t let your guard down. There are things down here a lot more dangerous than me.”

“We’re aware,” Marie said. “Keres has warned us repeatedly.”

The dragon laughed. “Either way, thanks for the good fight! Say hi to Thanatos for me when you get back with the rest of your group!” As they all watched, still keyed-up on adrenaline from the fight, the dragon turned and flew away, sailing off into the watery gloom.

Hamuko sank to the floor a few feet from Akira. “So he was just playing with us the entire time. What the hell?”

“I guess he was bored,” Marie sighed. “He wanted a fun fight, even though he could have killed all of you with enough effort.”

Akira was wrapped around the medallion like something was going to materialize and try to steal it from him. “At least we got what we came for. I’d rather not get knocked flat again, though…”

“We should return to the gate. The others may have already obtained their key piece,” Aigis said, and everyone nodded in agreement. Hamuko and Akira picked themselves up, and they all set out on the long trek back the way they’d come. They could only hope their friends had done as well against Oizys, and that they’d be able to move on soon.

Minato was waiting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HELLO, EVERYONE.
> 
> Okay, so... I'm sorry. I hate that this took this long. Life got busy, I had to shop for a new car, I had to sort out Official Paperwork Bullshit, and I had to finish a costume before Katsucon. And all of that ate most of my words and killed my motivation. But I am back now! ~~Hopefully.~~ (And if anyone wants to see Katsu pictures, they're [over here](http://twilightknight17.tumblr.com/tagged/Katsucon%202019/chrono). I went to 3 Persona photoshoots :P)
> 
> So my big mistake with this fic was making a dungeon that was more fighting than puzzles, because god I don't like writing fight scenes. But I'm considering it practice because I want to get better, and some more of Ryoji's siblings are here to help me out, because it's a waste to only use three of them. So I hope this came out okay, because it's another fight scene next chapter before the Big One.
> 
> Izanami is a water/wind affinity persona, with Hot Lightning as her exclusive move for Almighty damage and a 100% chance of dizzy. Marie has access to the four primary elementals, though.
> 
> [Momus boss fight music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWNKFBeYVxw) (Sorry XDDD)
> 
> Next chapter: It's time for a TED talk about the nature of personas! We've just got to get Ryoji to wait 'til the fight's over before busting out the slideshow.


	16. November ????, 2017

Despite Kaori and Ryoji’s best efforts, Oizys was even less cooperative than her counterpart. She hadn’t even started the fight in human form; the instant it looked like things were turning towards combat, she’d morphed from a lanky teenage girl with long black hair in a dull blue smock into a twenty-foot-tall siren creature that wailed and lashed out with vicious water spells.

“Hey!” Yu shouted, body-checking Sho out of the way of malaquadyne. Goro had jumped back as well, but Ryoji wasn’t so lucky, and the water surrounded him and floated him up in a seamless sphere. Yu skidded to a halt, pointing his sword at the mermaid-like Embodiment of Misery. “That’s your brother you’re drowning!”

“Who cares if he sheds his mortal form?!” Oizys cried. “Death can’t die!”

“His husband is going to care when we finally get down there,” Kaori snapped, bracing herself on the slick tiles and forcing herself into the air. As she jumped, the scythe in her hands grew larger, and fabric billowed out around her until she was no longer visible, replaced with the ominous cloaked form of the grim reaper. She crashed through the water spell with a massive splash, dragging Ryoji with her and dumping him back on solid ground.

“Be more careful!” Kaori’s voice was still recognizable even though she had temporarily given up on human form herself. Her hands where they gripped the scythe were gnarled and bony, and she huffed, “If you do something stupid and die, everyone is screwed.”

Ryoji gulped down a deep breath. “Sorry. My reactions are getting slower than I thought.”

They both watched as Yu and Sho charged forward, swords flashing in tandem as Goro threw Heat Riser at the pair. Oizys was wearing down, but it was still a rough fight, and as Kaori streaked back into the battle alongside them, Oizys threw out a webbed hand and screeched, _“Magrydyne!”_

Immense pressure slammed down on them, knocking the wind out of them as most of them were forced to their knees. Goro managed to stay on his feet, jabbing his sword into her tail as it flicked close, and was backhanded across the tower for his trouble.

Kaori, still hovering in midair with great effort, lunged forward and slashed with her scythe, keeping Oizys back long enough for the spell to start to dissipate. “Ice, you idiots,” she hissed. “Can you not figure anything out without your navigator?”

“I don’t _have_ ice!” Sho snapped back, but Goro was already forcing his way upright as best he could, looking to Yu.

“Melchizedek, _revolution_!” he called, lifting a hand, and the angel appeared to cast an empowering light on the other Wild Card, who shoved himself to his feet.

Yu reached out, summoning a tarot card to crush in his fist, and said sharply, “Loki, _Niflheim_.”

Goro’s mouth fell open in shock. The persona that appeared had long blond hair, purple clothes, and devil wings. It looked nothing like the dazzle-camouflaged, gangly persona he was used to, and as sharp ice encased Oizys and shattered in a critical hit, Goro found himself unnerved for reasons he couldn’t quite explain.

Apparently being trapped in a block of ice and skewered by shards was the final straw, because Oizys lashed her tail and pouted. “Fine! I’m done; this isn’t fun anymore.” As they watched, she shrank down from the massive siren creature back to a more human size, becoming the girl with long, stringy black hair again. “You’re all taking this way too seriously.”

“You’re just sore ‘cuz you’re losing,” Sho taunted, but Yu put an arm out, a silent admonishment to hush.

“Look,” Kaori said, back in human form and taking a step forward, “I just want that medallion so I can get these idiots where they need to go and get them out before they get themselves killed. Maybe we can have a more fun fight later when they aren’t all wound up and upset.”

“Ugh. You and Thanatos are the worst, with your weird attachment to humans,” Oizys complained. Before Kaori could object that she wasn’t ‘attached’, the Embodiment of Misery continued, “Fine, take the stupid medallion. I’ll just go back to being bored out of my mind for now.” She pulled it from somewhere behind her back and threw it to the floor at Kaori’s feet.

Ryoji stepped forward, still a little shaky. “Oizys…”

“Shut up, Thanatos. Go play with your _human_ friends.” With that, she turned on her heel and dove gracefully off the side of the tower, vanishing from sight.

“I’m glad I don’t have any younger siblings. She sounded jealous as hell. At least we got the thing,” Sho said. But then he looked over at Goro, and called, “You okay there, prince?”

With the group’s attention immediately drawn to him, Goro lifted a hand and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “I just… I confess to being a bit confused,” he said. “Narukami-san summoned Loki, and I was wondering why it looks nothing like what I am familiar with.”

Kaori stared at him. “What are you even talking about? That’s what he looks like. Unfortunately.”

“No, I understand,” Ryoji said. “It’s because of how shadows and personas work, Goro-kun. Your Loki and Yu-kun’s aren’t the same.”

Goro’s eyes narrowed. “Can you...explain a bit better than that? Not that I doubt what you’re saying, but anything new I can learn about these powers would be helpful.”

“I’m interested too, actually. Igor doesn’t really talk about how it all works on a basic level,” Yu said, and Kaori groaned, leaning over to pick up the medallion.

“Can we at least walk and talk? We don’t have time for a full-blown presentation here. The others are probably wondering where the hell we are.”

She managed to get them all moving, and as they started back across the light bridge, Ryoji explained, “So, when you negotiate with a shadow, or,” he flapped a hand at Yu, “get a tarot card or however a Wild Card adds a persona to their compendium, you’re not actually getting that entity. Minato can summon the three Fates, but he’s not literally summoning my little sisters. He’s summoning a facet of their power in their image.”

“That makes sense,” Yu said.

“It does…” Goro mused. “It also explains why shadows of a type that had already been negotiated with would recognize Akira even when we were somewhere that we had never been before. If they are just reflections of the whole, they would be aware of a deal made with another part of...themself?”

“Shame about only getting a bit of the power, though. If you were literally commanding the gods, I might have taken that contract,” Sho quipped.

Kaori rolled her eyes. “Like we’d listen to you. The only person to command a god or concept wholly is Minato-san, and that’s because Thanatos would jump off a cliff for him.”

_“Anyway,”_ Ryoji huffed, “the point is that you’re getting a facet of humanity’s collective interpretation of that god or concept. All of humanity’s ideas of what Jack Frost looks like average out to...Jack Frost. So when you gain it as a persona, it’s like… Like if you download a Youcube video.”

“Oh my god,” Goro muttered, but Ryoji just kept going.

“If you download the video, you’re getting a copy of the original, probably in a lesser quality. And depending on the Wild Card, you can get a _different_ quality. So like...Metatron for you and Akira-kun is from the Justice arcana, and really powerful, but for Yu it’s Judgement and it’s a little less powerful, because you’re channeling humanity’s version through you and you influence it.” Death Incarnate was on a roll, much to his twin’s exasperation and the amusement of the Wild Cards.

“That explains why two Wild Cards can have the same personas with different arcanas, but it doesn’t explain why the Loki that I used to summon and the Loki in Narukami-san’s possession are so wildly different,” Goro pointed out.

“I’m getting there!” Ryoji said, grinning. “That’s because a persona that someone awakens from their own heart is a reflection of _their_ personal interpretation of the thing. It’s why Baofu-san and Futaba-chan can both have Prometheus as their ultimate, and they look totally different. It’s how _you personally_ see him, not how humanity as a whole sees him. Yu-kun has regular Loki; you had Special Edition Loki!”

Dead silence fell in the wake of the explanation, and then Goro laughed. “Well, when you put it like that, I feel quite special,” he said. “So if I were to somehow track down Arsène in meta-space and make a deal with him, he would look different from Akira’s? Because Akira has… ‘Special Edition Arsène’?”

Sho snorted, and Yu was trying to hide a smile, but Ryoji nodded enthusiastically. “Yep! That’s exactly right. That’s harder to fit into my terrible Youcube analogy, but I guess you could think of it like fanfiction instead? Your interpretation of ‘canon’.”

“I’ve got a question,” Sho said. “Shouldn’t it be possible for him to make a deal with the ‘normal’ version of Loki and have both?”

By that point, Kaori was trying really hard not to smile as well, but there was a distinct twitch to the corner of her lip as Ryoji frowned, temporarily stumped. “You know… I’m not sure. It would _probably_ just default to him already having Loki, since you can only have one of each persona at a time, and it wouldn’t differentiate between his version of Loki and someone else’s. But maybe it could…”

“I wonder what fusion spell two Lokis would get you. He’s already a component of that Trickster spell no one likes to use,” Yu said.

“Well, according to the compendiums, regular Loki is ice, and Special Edition Loki was fire, so they might cancel each other out,” Kaori said, and Ryoji pointed an accusing finger at her, grinning triumphantly.

“You are having fun with this!”

Kaori sighed with a smile. “You idiots are rubbing off on me. What can I say?”

***

The two groups met back up at the gate, where Kaori and Akira fitted together the two halves of the medallion. They slotted in perfectly, and then Kaori pushed it into the indent in the gate. She stepped back to watch with the others as it rotated slowly, and then the gate cracked open with an ominous scraping sound.

After exchanging stories of what they’d encountered getting their individual pieces, Marie leaned a hand on her hip. “That explains why Ryoji’s soaking wet. We lucked out, apparently; Momus just wanted to mess with us.”

“Yeah, if I’d known which of my siblings was where, I’d have gone the other way,” Ryoji admitted. “But there’s a reason only a few were invited to the wedding. The younger ones are...definitely like that.”

“So if we go through that gate, are there going to be more waiting for us?” Yu asked. “I really don’t want to get down there and have… I don’t know, the embodiments of Frustration and Strife land on us out of nowhere.”

“No one is frustration, and Eris will crumple like tissue paper if both of us frown hard enough at her because we’re older,” Ryoji said. “But they mostly live on this level of the Deepscape. The next one is more—” His words choked off as he hunched over a little, brow furrowing with pain.

“Are you okay?” Akira asked, as Hamuko darted forward to make sure he didn’t fall over.

“It’s fine, it’s fine, the Seal is just wearing me down. I’ll be okay,” Ryoji insisted.

Hamuko, holding onto his upper arms and searching his face, looked less than convinced. “Are you sure there isn’t some way that I can take part of the Seal? If this is killing you…”

“It’s not killing me. And you’re not the Universe anymore, Hamu-chan; I don’t want it to take more than you have to give. I’ll be fine.” Ryoji pulled away from her, flashing her a smile and waving at the gate. “Come on. The sooner we get down there, the sooner we finish this and don’t have to worry about it.”

Before they could approach the gate, Kaori stepped in the way, her expression even more serious than usual. She held out her arms to bar the way and said, “Listen to me. I want all of you to promise me. We are not stopping. We are not looking around. When we get down there, we are going straight through to the opposite gate. Do you understand? We are _not_ upsetting the Old Ones, and if _anything_ in humanity’s consciousness has any mercy, the gate won’t be locked when we get there. Got it?”

“Are these ‘Old Ones’ a greater threat than those we have encountered so far?” Aigis asked.

Kaori nodded. “The kids are nothing in comparison. Oizys and Momus were fooling around in their own ways; the Old Ones are a threat simply by existing. So don’t look, don’t stop, and whatever you see, don’t think too hard. Your personas will protect you, but not for long.”

“If that’s what it takes,” Yu agreed. “We’re here for Minato and we can’t afford to get distracted, anyway.”

Carefully the group ventured through the gate. Despite knowing that it functioned as some sort of portal, it didn’t feel like they were any deeper than before. But their surroundings had grown darker, the eerie droning had grown louder, and the paths in front of them seemed to shift and tangle into a mess.

“What the hell?” Akira asked. “How are we supposed to get across that?”

“Don’t think too hard,” Kaori repeated. “We need to go.” Without regard for the rest of them, she started walking, and from their perspective she rotated to match the path.

“It’s just an illusion,” Futaba said with bravado she didn’t feel. “Everything is fine.” She went after Kaori, and slowly, everyone followed. It was hard to ignore the strange pressure that seemed to surround them, the constant nagging feeling that something was wrong, but all of them did their best to keep their minds focused solely on their destination. It was nothing like any dungeon that any of them had ever done before; the closest any of them had come was Akira’s experiences with the Escher hall in Madarame’s museum. Even the calamity mandala had been right-side up, at least.

Sho lunged, locking his hand around Yu’s wrist before he could stumble off the side of the path as it took a sharp hairpin to the left and downwards. “Oi, would it be easier if we just shut our eyes?” he huffed at Kaori. “Much as I think it’d be stupid, we could just join hands and let you drag us through this mess.”

“Oh, and then have all of you go over the side when one of you falls off? Yeah, no.” Kaori turned to glare over her shoulder. “Just be careful. Watch each other’s backs. We’ll get through here.”

They carried on in relative silence for what felt like ages, focusing entirely on putting one foot in front of the other as the path tied itself in knots beneath their feet. Sho didn’t let go of Yu’s wrist, which no one commented on, too distracted by the looming impression of something large and terrible outside of their awareness.

“Wh-What’s that?” Hamuko asked, pointing, and before Kaori could tell them not to, most of the group looked. Futaba in particular lit up like it was Christmas morning.

“That’s…!”

“We’re _going, now_ ,” Kaori demanded, turning to grab the nearest person, which happened to be Aigis. “We only have a little while.”

“Can’t I take a picture?” Futaba asked, and Akira grabbed her arm.

“I don’t think it’s a good time.”

The looming figure was something they were all familiar with, massive and tentacled and far more dangerous than any of them were willing to deal with. But the real problem was the shapes beyond, growing closer, that exuded a sense of wrongness that was bearing down on them even more than before.

As they hurried on, Hamuko stumbled first. When Ryoji turned to ask if she was okay, she smiled, her eyes slightly glazed. “The universe shines beneath the skin of stained glass masks. Iä, fhtagn.”

“...shit.” Ryoji grabbed her arm. “Kaori, we’re losing coherence.”

“Great. Okay, just...grab anyone who’s babbling and let’s move.” She let go of Aigis, who was still lucid, and turned to check on the others. Futaba’s eyes were glazing over, and Kaori grabbed her arm. “Keep an eye on the rest of the kids,” she told Aigis.

“Wgah'nagl in the endless deep of the abyss,” Yu said dreamily.

Marie tugged Yu’s arm over her shoulder. She was kind of surprised that Yu had already cracked. He was usually remarkably down-to earth about whatever weird things they encountered, but apparently everyone had a breaking point, and Yu’s was unknowable elder gods. “Come on, stupid idiot, focus. What are you even talking about?” 

“The heresy of white wine and sapphire prayers,” Yu said in a reverent tone.

“...I might steal that for some poetry, actually,” she mused, only to be punched in the shoulder by Sho, who had Goro slung over his shoulder.

“Can we _go?_ ” he asked, as Goro mumbled nonsensically against his back.

“Iä,” Akira said, and then his eyes widened. “I mean, yeah, let’s go.”

Kaori led the way as quickly as she could, as those who were still coherent dragged along those who weren’t. No one could tell if the _things_ beyond the path were getting closer, but at that point it didn’t matter. Knowing they were there, incomprehensible and enormous, was enough to start fraying at their sanity despite the protection their personas offered. All of them, on some level, knew they had to make it out soon. Or they were going to be ph'nglui fhtagn and it was going to be a bad time for everyone.

She wasn’t surprised at who had succumbed first, though. From what little she knew about Goro and Futaba, their minds were definitely more vulnerable. Hamuko was a close third, and it was pretty obvious Akira was holding on through sheer willpower. Yu, though… She couldn’t explain Yu, nor could she explain why Sho seemed to be doing just fine. Humans were so unpredictable...

When they reached the gate, it was a smooth metal surface, with no visible doors. Kaori let go of Futaba and kicked it in frustration. “Why does this _need_ to be closed?!” she yelled. “What is the _point?_ No one wants to go down there! Even Lord Philemon doesn’t stay down there!”

“The stars, they have stars!” Futaba yelled in response.

“That doesn’t help!” She looked around at their motley crew, a crowd of perfectly-capable persona-users gradually losing their minds. Sho had dropped Goro, who was swaying on his feet and keeping up a quiet, continuous chant of _Iä Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!_ , and Hamuko and Akira were engaged in a barely-understandable conversation about...artichokes. Kaori was regretting most of the decisions that had led to this moment, fairly convinced that this was going to be it. There was no fast way back, and if the Old Ones kept advancing…

“Ryoji, we’re going to end up with salad at this rate,” she said. “Can you and Marie call Thanatos and Izanami? The three of us might be able to get the gate open on our own.”

“It’s worth a shot,” Marie said, shoving Yu into Sho and Akira, who were doing their best, but slowly succumbing to random chanting as well. _“Izanami!”_

_“Thanatos!”_ Ryoji called, wincing. The two personas appeared, and Kaori shifted into her cloaked reaper form. All three of them together charged the gate, which shuddered, but didn’t give way.

_“Panta Rhea!”_ Marie cried, and a blast of wind slammed into the gate. It opened a crack, and Thanatos took the opportunity, wedging his fingers into the space and tugging. Izanami jammed her sword in as well, levering her weight as best she could, and while the gate was opening, it wasn’t opening fast enough.

And then Futaba’s voice said loudly, “Ooooooh!”

Kaori turned to look from where she’d wedged the pole of her scythe into the gate. Between where they were trying to get through and the looming entities, a collection of glowing orbs had appeared, hovering and blocking out the unknowable silhouettes. There was no way to know if it was there by chance or had actively shown up to help them, but they couldn’t waste the opportunity.

“Is that the gate guardian from before?” Marie yelled, and Ryoji nodded urgently.

“I don’t know what it’s doing, but we have to go!”

Between Thanatos, Izanami, and Keres, the gate finally opened enough to admit them, and with Aigis’s help they dragged the rest of their semi-coherent team through into a dim antechamber. The gate closed behind them with a final ominous rumble, and Ryoji took a deep breath before going over to shake Hamuko. “Hamu-chan, are you still with us?”

“I feel like my brain went through a blender,” she muttered. “What the hell…”

“It basically did,” Kaori said. “I told you not to look, and damn if all of you didn’t look as soon as one person screwed up. It wasn’t even the Aeons! What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

Sho and Akira had mostly shaken off the effects, and Sho nudged Yu unsympathetically with the toe of his shoe while Akira checked on Goro and Futaba. Energy shower seemed to help a little, and Futaba managed to sit up, while Akira supported Goro as he rubbed his forehead.

“If this was anyone other than Minato-san, I don’t think I could handle this,” he admitted, then added, “Except you of course,” when Goro elbowed him.

Aigis was looking around, the quiet hum of her electronics the only real background noise. The place they’d found themselves in was silent, which somehow was even more uncomfortable than the ominous droning of the twisted world they’d just left. It was just a single, winding path into a black void, and somehow the absence of almost everything – light, sound, the sense of distance – was enough to make their skin crawl.

“I can’t pick up anything down here,” she said. “No shadows, no entities similar to Ryoji-san… Just us.”

“Oh, he’s here,” Marie said. “We’ll sense him when he wants us to.”

“We’re almost there,” Ryoji murmured. “It was close for a minute there, but...we’re going to do this.” He sounded nothing but determined. Even after stumbling through the worst of the Deepscape, fighting two of his siblings, with the Seal wearing on his shoulders… He twisted his wedding band around his finger and faced the road ahead.

The rest of the group gathered behind him, prepared to push forward. The Crawling Chaos wasn’t going to know what hit him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Oizys boss fight music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMx4lgQedAc)
> 
> Add in "eldritch horror" along with fight scenes and large groups to "things I'm wobbly about writing but low-key attempting anyway". It's...not really horror, but... There was an attempt. Attempts are good. XD
> 
> I really hope that that persona explanation was coherent, because I had a blast writing it with all the bad internet analogies. And I wanted to take a stab at some more series-arching meta, because my blowtorch was getting rusty. :P Speaking of, Earth, Water, Gravity, and Blast were originally spell sets in P1 and P2, and I wanted a chance to bring some of those back with Oizys and Momus while I had a chance, since they've been neglected in more modern games. Except I think the blast spells became wind? Maybe. The wiki is the wiki, so I did my best. Gravity sounds fun, though. XD
> 
> Next chapter: Without a plan, with only determination at their backs, and even with a move unused, is it enough to save the Universe?


	17. November ?????, 2017

All of them could feel that there was something different about this final area. It crept around them in uneasy pressure, lingering on their skin in creeping sensations, wrapped around them like weights on their backs. It felt at once out of place and familiar, like phantom limbs or a too-heavy cloak.

The path wound aimlessly into the dark, with no way to tell how much progress they were making except reaching the next curve. Hamuko had tested the edges; the void beyond was solid, so there was no risk of falling, but even though this felt like it could be leading them into a trap, no one was willing to brave venturing into the empty blackness in search of an alternate possibility.

Which, after the near-disaster prior to crossing into this area, Kaori was incredibly grateful for. They weren't going to get a second chance like they did at the gate again.

Imperceptibly at first, the road began to widen, but as they pressed onward it became less of a path and more a wide, flat plain, dull grey and dusty under an endless inky sky. All of them had the strangest feeling of being surrounded by things they couldn’t see, watching from the dark, but before anyone worked up the nerve to comment on it, a lone figure came into view.

“Minato-san!” Aigis said sharply, and Ryoji lurched forward a step, as if he had been about to run towards him, but stopped himself at the last moment. It was certainly Minato’s body, standing with his head bowed, arms limply at his sides, but they could be fairly certain it wasn’t Minato’s soul in control. Especially when he looked up with flat eyes and said with a slight lilt, “You came to save me!”

“Shut your mouth and get out of my brother!” Hamuko snapped.

The Crawling Chaos laughed. “Will you make me, Wild Card?” he asked, a cruel smile spreading across Minato’s face. “Will you fight, knowing that it is your brother that will take the wounds?”

“I’m sure he’s been fighting you, too,” Hamuko snapped. “And he’d understand. We can heal him afterwards, but not as long as you’re still here.”

“Fighting me?” He sounded smug. “What will to fight would he possess, without his shadow? All that remains is apathy.”

“That’s not true,” Ryoji said, and all of them, just barely, saw the expression on Minato’s face flicker for a second. “Even without your shadow, you still know who you are. I know you’re in there, Minato. You have to fight him.”

“Minato-san, everyone misses you,” Aigis said. “Mitsuru-san is particularly distressed by what happened.”

“Maya-san and Katsuya-san are freaking out,” Yu said, and Sho added, “You should have seen these guys trying to convince the entire Shadow Ops not to charge down here like an army.”

“People love you a lot, Minato. Shrug this jerk off so we can go home,” Marie encouraged.

Nothing seemed to be happening, and Futaba and Akira glanced at Goro, who took a step forward to stand next to Ryoji and face the Universe head-on. Taking a deep breath, he said, softer than the others, “...please come back.”

There was silence as they waited to see if their appeals had had any effect at all, and after a moment the Crawling Chaos’s face twisted with annoyance.

“Enough of this.” His eyes flashed shadow-gold, and he drew a sword from nowhere. Red veins shot through the steel and pulsed with an eerie light. “Do you truly have the arrogance to think that you can stand against me?”

“We faced a god,” Goro said. “I think we’re capable.”

“We’re not afraid of you,” Akira added, drawing his knife, and the others followed suit, spreading out into a battle stance.

He laughed, hollow and ominous. “Then come, little murderer; come, little thief,” he said in Minato’s voice, and all of them gripped their weapons tighter. “Come, foolish Death, that chose to be mortal. Show me once again what humanity is capable of, what _Philemon’s chosen_ are capable of. Show me that you are enough to call him back to you!”

Before any of them could make a move, he lifted a hand to his head and mimed a gunshot. _“Armageddon!”_

“I won’t let you!” Futaba screeched, and from Prometheus a bright green barrier spread out to cover them, blocking the all-encompassing light from consuming them. When it cleared, the Crawling Chaos was coming right at them, sword at the ready.

“Maybe you’re not so helpless after all. But I’ll see what you’re truly made of!”

Yu was there in an instant, blocking the sword with his own. “Minato, you can’t let him use you like this!”

“Your words are worth nothing!” They struggled against their locked blades for a moment, and then Yu dodged back as Akira and Hamuko came at him from both sides. But he sidestepped Hamuko’s naginata and nearly sent Akira’s knife flying with a well-placed hit. It was obvious that he had Minato’s strength and skills, but he didn’t move anything like the Minato they were used to, so hours of sparring were virtually useless in predicting what he was going to do.

“I can’t tell if he has any weaknesses!” Futaba cried. “The readings are all muddled because of both of them.” She was hanging back with Ryoji, ready to sweep both of them into Prometheus if she had to, and Ryoji shook his head.

“Orpheus doesn’t have any, anymore, but don’t use fire or he’ll absorb it,” he called.

“Good, then we can just beat him down until he caves,” Sho said. “Tsukiyomi, it’s showtime! _Vorpal blade!_ ”

The attack landed, though the Crawling Chaos barely staggered from the hit. But what drew Futaba’s attention, watching from a distance, was the way that Tsukiyomi seemed more translucent than usual. And she could almost see the striped linings of his coat, fluttering around Sho instead. But then she blinked again and it was gone, and she returned her focus to the fight as a whole.

Their greatest problem, from what she could tell as she worked to keep them buffed, was that they were holding back. They knew Minato’s skillset, for the most part, and even if gravity or earth spells were less familiar, Kaori and Marie were there to counter. But there was hesitation. A split-second waver in a weapon. A bolt of lightning a hair off-center. A missed window to attack. And it made sense. Minato was important to all of them; the idea of fighting him, even if it wasn’t him, was throwing them off.

Even Sho, who didn’t have any particular emotional attachment to anyone except Yu and possibly Marie, was finding it hard to land anything like a decisive hit. He was still fighting harder than the others, though, ducking beneath the puppet’s blade and trying his best to bring him down. 

_“Mudoon!”_ Akira shouted, making an attempt even though he knew that it wasn’t going to be enough. The spell didn’t connect, but this time for sure Futaba was positive that she saw Arsène’s wings, arched from Akira’s back like an extension of his coat.

“Ryoji-san, do you see…?”

Ryoji nodded. “We’re so close to the core of unconsciousness,” he said. “And your persona is you. In this place, the nature of being one and the same is most obvious.” He shuddered, then added, “And the weight of the Seal is more obvious. I should be helping…”

“You should be not dying, so that we don’t have to deal with the end of the world on top of Goro’s dad being possessed,” Futaba shot back. Prometheus hadn’t recharged enough for another supercharge, but she could give them a fraction of energy back, so they could keep calling on their personas. And this time, now that she was paying attention, she could see the faint rainbow lines that matched Prometheus’s running over her gloves as she activated the spell.

Marie, lightning running down her staff, swept at his legs, forcing him to jump or risk electrocution. “You’re playing dirty! Quit using him as a shield. What are you, scared we can kick your ass when you’re not cheating?”

“Ah, but what better challenge for humanity than to be forced to fight against their savior!”

“They’re not!” Kaori yelled. “They’re fighting _you_. You’ve just done this to increase your odds of winning. Because you know you wouldn’t if you fought fair!” She lunged, halfway into her cloaked form as she lashed at him with the wide arc of her scythe.

A cruel smile, as he dodged the swing. “And what are they doing, asking for help from you, O Death? Doesn’t that...even the odds a bit?”

Kaori growled with frustration. “Normally I wouldn’t give a damn about humans and their problems, but he’s not exactly human, is he? If you didn’t want me involved, you shouldn’t have picked my my brother’s mostly-human husband to swipe.”

Any quip he had to respond with was cut off by the spray of bullets that Aigis unleashed at him, forcing him to leap backwards to avoid being perforated. And in that split-second space, the others charged in. But it was so frustrating. For every spell, he seemed to have a counter. For every strike, a block, a deflection, blade whirling in shining crescents as he fended them all off. And still, that same wariness to cause serious harm to the one he was possessing, keeping them from driving in with their full potential.

“Enough!” he cried, throwing a hand into the air. “If this is the best you can do, it will be a mercy to end this now.”

“Stop!” Kaori roared, but he pointed at her first.

_“Crawling chaos!”_ His voice was the rasp of the abyss, unnatural and terrifying coming from Minato’s form.

“Wh—” Kaori stumbled, the rags of her reaper cloak dragging the ground. “You can’t, you shouldn’t be able to silence me…!”

“The benefits of combining my powers with those of one strong enough to imprison a goddess.” A smile split his face like a slash. _“Unperishable black!”_

Power surged out from him like a wave, tendrils of darkness manifesting around him as the impact washed over all of them. Most of them went down hard, brought to their knees by the force of the attack. Those that didn’t fall were grabbed by the tendrils, which on closer inspection were covered in what looked like tiny, screaming faces.

Goro managed to get his gun up, Mordred countering most of the force of the attack, but as soon as he tried to take aim he found his hands shaking. Knowing it was someone else didn’t change the fact that it was Minato’s face past the end of the barrel, nor did it stop him from seeing Akira’s face in its place, covered in blood like in his nightmares.

“Akechi-kun, stop him!” Yu shouted, as their grinning opponent broke into a run, but Goro hesitated just long enough for tendrils to grab his arm and knock his aim off. They were forced to watch as the Crawling Chaos went right for Futaba and Ryoji, struggling against the holds on them and the exhaustion of standing up against such a powerful attack.

Futaba reacted immediately. “Prometheus!” she cried, grabbing for Ryoji’s hand to bring him into her persona as well. But tendrils wrapped around his legs, and he shoved her off frantically.

“Don’t worry about me, heal the others!” he insisted, and she stumbled back as Prometheus wrapped around her and soared backwards, leaving Ryoji to stare down the thing possessing his husband as it raised its sword.

“Should we see how far humanity has come? Are they enough to hold off the Fall of their own merits?” the Crawling Chaos sneered. 

Ryoji didn’t dignify him with a response, staring him down with flat, determined eyes. He had enough left for one spell, and he tried to tune out the others screaming in the background, focusing on drawing everything he had left into a powerful attack. If he was going down, this thing was going down with him, and if he could just get Door of Hades to connect there was a chance he could end this in one shot.

But before either of them could do anything, Goro’s voice cut through the cacophony of panic, desperate and anguished.

_“DAD!”_

Both of them froze. Ryoji watched with shock as Minato’s eyes flickered with life for a split-second, and instead of calling for Thanatos, grabbed his shoulders. “Minato? Come on, shake him off, come _on_!” Neither of them were ever expecting to hear that, of course the shock would wake up whatever of Minato was left without his shadow. “Mina, come back to me, please!”

The role-reversal was so strange. They’d come full-circle in the end, from the top of the Tower of Demise to the depths of the abyss. But Nyx had let him go, whatever her reasoning had been, and it was clear that this monster had no intentions of giving up Minato without something drastic. Ryoji didn’t want to think that this was the consequences of their actions, that it had come down to Minato instead of him, but if that was what it took… Minato would want him to keep everyone else safe.

“Mina, please, I don’t want to have to do this,” he said, even as he lifted one hand, ready to call Thanatos.

“Silence!” It wasn’t even Minato’s voice anymore, like he no longer cared enough to bother with the charade. “There is nothing you can do!” But he wasn't trying to jerk away from Ryoji's one-handed grip on his shoulders, and in his eyes it was clear that his control was no longer absolute.

“...enough, Nyarlathotep.”

Minato’s body arched, a pained gasp escaping, and Ryoji looked up to meet the even gaze of Philemon, who had materialized behind Minato and clamped a hand around the back of his neck.

“Wh…” Ryoji began. “Now? You’re here _now?_ What are you _doing?_ ”

Philemon stared back, then said firmly, “Making my move.”

There was a pulse of power, and Minato went limp, collapsing forward against a very startled Ryoji as all of his muscles gave out at once. The red-veined sword clattered to the ground, and Ryoji stumbled back as the tendrils released him, flailing wildly. Everyone else was staggering to their feet as Futaba managed to heal them enough, but it was clear they weren't in great shape.

The tendrils retreated, regrouping closer to the center, where a massive torso of the same darkness was taking shape. It didn’t even have a face of its own, just a head and body covered in the same screaming faces as the tendrils.

“Philemon!” Nyarlathotep roared. “What was that move?!”

“If you are allowed to take possession of one of my Wild Cards, and steal his shadow,” Philemon said firmly, still standing in front of Ryoji and the unconscious Minato, “then I am allowed to use my power to force you out.”

“You couldn’t have done that _sooner?_ ” Akira shouted.

Philemon shook his head. “I had one move, and had to wait for the proper moment. If I had not waited for his control to be shaken, even a little, it could have caused irreparable damage to his psyche. And I cannot strike down Nyarlathotep of my own power, but all of you can. Especially now that, were he to make another drastic move, I would simply free Arisato Minato’s shadow. Thus we have returned to a stalemate, and I must depend on you once again.”

“You left us the hard part,” Sho groused, but then he grinned. “You’re lucky we’ve got this.”

“Guys, look!” Hamuko called, pointing upwards with her naginata. High above them, suspended in coils of darkness, was another Minato: his shadow, eyes closed and expression slack.

The monster before them let out a guttural laugh. “You cannot defeat me!” Nyarlathotep insisted. “I am the shadow of all of humanity! As long as humanity’s capability for evil exists, so will I!”

“We know that there are things too powerful to be destroyed,” Aigis said. “That is why we sealed away Nyx.”

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t force them to yield,” Yu added. “We’re taking Minato back and sending you back to the abyss where you belong!”

They took their places, weary but determined. This was truly the final battle. It was time to throw in everything they had. Help had arrived unexpectedly, but now it was up to them, and they weren’t going to stop until Minato was safe and whole again.

And even all the evils of humanity weren’t going to be able to stand in their way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have nitpicked this half a boss fight half to death, but I've finally given myself a time limit so that I'll stop agonizing.
> 
> [Puppet Minato boss music](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR0SvgLy_D8) (I also went back and added Oizys's boss music to last chapter.)
> 
> I'm trying to get better at fight scenes, so I hope this is good. There's still a second form to go, but we're getting there, and since a certain someone has finally gotten off his ass to step in, they've got a good shot! But it still won't be easy.
> 
> Next chapter: I am thou, _thou art I_


	18. November ??????, 2017

All of them had, at one point or another, found themselves staring at the impossible. Entities beyond the scope of their imaginings, the living embodiments of concepts, deities both false and real… It still didn’t change the surreality of knowing that what they fought against wasn’t merely a god or a lesser concept. It was evil itself, in living form. It couldn’t be destroyed. Their only hope was to be enough to drive it back, and their chances weren’t looking good.

_“Wheel of Time!”_

The spell collided with them a third time, sending everyone staggering. It was somehow getting stronger every time the Crawling Chaos cast it, on top of the ridiculous power behind even ‘ordinary’ spells in his arsenal. Staying on their feet was growing harder and harder, and not only did it have abilities to make the force worse when they tried to protect themselves, it could null any kind of buffs or protection Futaba tried to give them, and had even blocked the Wild Cards from accessing any but their core personas. It was becoming more of a struggle to keep getting back up, but if they couldn’t rescue Minato’s shadow, everything was over.

“Do we actually have a plan?” Marie called. She resisted the urge to throw up tetrakarn, forcing herself to dodge the blow instead so that he didn’t get the opportunity to deal more damage. “Because none of us are getting up there except Kaori, and he keeps knocking her back!”

Yu took a swing at another tendril that was reaching for his throat. “I don’t know! The last time any of us faced something this powerful, he nearly died, and he’s not here to help this time.”

“Nyarlathotep isn’t going to let Minato go,” Kaori said urgently. “We have to keep trying!”

Still standing back with Futaba, knowing that he didn’t have the force in him to stand up to the full might of the Crawling Chaos, Ryoji stared up at Minato’s shadow and felt useless. Yes, he was the only thing keeping the Seal intact. Yes, he probably only had the strength left for some kind of desperation move, but that was his _husband_. That was the man that he had promised to stand by for the rest of his existence. And having him so far out of reach was agonizing.

He had to get up there. Kaori couldn’t do it alone; a single target was too easy to block. And Philemon, knelt beside Minato’s body, certainly wasn’t going to help any farther. So it was up to him. And...he had an option. It was risky, but it was no less risky than coming down here to face the Deepscape in the first place. In this place, a person and their inner self were one and the same. And his inner self wasn’t just Thanatos. He could hear his persona, his real power, murmuring to him that it might be their only shot.

And he could hear Minato, what felt like a lifetime ago, admonishing him not to do the very thing he was thinking of.

_...if you try to revert Thanatos to your shadow, there’s a high probability that it turns into the Avatar and tries to kill us all…_

But even if he wasn’t Nyx’s Avatar anymore, even if he no longer had more than scraps of Nyx’s vast power, it was still part of him in some small way. It manifested in moonless gown and moments of emptiness, moments that were usually filled with love and warmth. But in the absence of his soulmate, with the Seal dragging at him like a weighted chain, that emptiness was going to be the best weapon he could wield. He had to get to Minato, whatever it took.

And if that meant relying on what was left of the Avatar to do it, so be it. He had to use everything that he had. And it would be fine. Because it was part of him.

“I am thou,” he murmured. “And you’re going to help me do something other than cause misery.”

Kaori and Marie could sense the shift in power almost immediately, both turning to look at him with wide eyes.

“What are you doing?!” Marie yelled. “That’s not Thanatos’s power!”

“Ryoji, don’t!” Kaori was forced to duck a blow from the Crawling Chaos, but he could hear how desperate she sounded.

Beside him, Futaba stared at her screens in confusion. “What _are_ you doing?” she asked. “Your readings spiked with weird power.”

Ryoji shook his head. “We’re not going to get near him without something drastic.” He looked up, past where the others were fighting their hardest, to where Minato’s shadow was held crucified. “All I want, for as long as he’s alive, is to be Arisato Ryoji. I can’t do that without him. He saved me from the impossible once, to make sure that I could live. It’s time I return the favor.”

Futaba reached up to punch him in the shoulder, lines of color running over her, and as he felt the extra burst of energy she said, “I can’t do a lot, but...here. Go get him.”

“Thanks, Futaba-chan.” Ryoji bowed his head, focusing on drawing up what was left of the Avatar without letting it overwhelm him. He just needed one thing… One simple thing.

For a moment, he wasn’t sure that it was working. But then, a half-familiar itch, a phantom limb becoming reality, and he distantly heard someone yelling as four ink-black wings stretched from his back. He gritted his teeth, holding back the surge of power to just what he needed as he flexed new-but-familiar muscles. Those that weren’t caught up in the fighting were gaping at him in wonder, and he made eye contact with Kaori as she dodged back from another blow. “Kaori! Cover me!”

“Idiot!” Kaori shot back, but in a flash she was wrapped in her ragged cloak again, hovering with her scythe at the ready. “Go!”

With one final backwards glance at his unconscious husband, Ryoji pushed off, shooting upwards towards where the shadow was trapped. It took him a few flaps to stabilize; he hadn’t had wings in almost eight years, after all. But then he was soaring towards Minato’s shadow, sword in hand.

“What are you doing?” Nyarlathotep demanded, and a hoard of tendrils reached for Ryoji. _“Chaos element!”_

They all felt the attack chipping away at what was left of their strength, but that didn’t stop the grounded members of the group from defending Ryoji as best they could. Yu boosted Sho up to grab hold of a tendril, and the redhead grinned wildly as it flailed, trying to throw him off. He hacked at it with his sword as best he could, but eventually it just slammed him violently into the ground, and he was still.

_“Wheel of T—”_

But before the Crawling Chaos could get the spell out for a fourth time, he was forced to stop as a spray of bullets showered where his face would have been. Aigis charged in, the specter of Athena’s armor surrounding her as she called on a skill, with Hamuko close behind. Hamuko drove her naginata into the monster’s chest, hanging on for deal life as he jerked backwards from the blow.

“Marie-san!” Futaba yelled, sprinting towards the battle in a way that showed just how far she’d come since since joining the Phantom Thieves. Marie glanced back long enough to see her point upwards before Prometheus shimmered into being around her. As it shifted direction to follow Kaori and Ryoji, Marie leaped, scrambling for balance atop the sphere for a moment before finding her footing.

“Good thinking, Futaba-chan!” she called, ducking as Prometheus swerved to avoid a swipe.

**“I’ve dodged harder stuff than this in video games,”** Futaba replied, **“but don’t thank me yet. He’s got a head start. Hang on!”**

As Marie readied her staff to help swipe away oncoming attacks, Yu and Goro were fighting their way towards Nyarlathotep’s main form. Sho had staggered to his feet, but only to back off, half-delirious from being rammed into the ground and bleeding from a cut on his head. As the other Wild Cards forced their way forward, Akira came up beside them, firing shot after shot into Nyarlathotep’s midsection. He had to be careful not to hit Hamuko, who was still hanging onto her naginata and whaling on it’s chest with an extra blade she’d pulled from somewhere.

“Look out!” Yu shouted. 

Goro whirled around, but was too slow to dodge the tendril that wrapped around his leg and dragged him into the air. It jerked him like a whip, and beneath the snap of his cape flapping right in his ear, there was a softer snapping sound, and he screamed as the bones of his leg broke in the thing’s grip.

“Goro!” Akira abandoned his gun to pull a knife instead and stabbed furiously at the tendril until it dropped his boyfriend with a pained howl. Akira ran to his side, trying to remember what Morgana had told him about severe wounds and mental magic as he pointedly avoided looking at the bone jutting through Goro’s skin. Too much at once would be bad? He still didn’t completely understand why, but he trusted Morgana, so he started with dia in an attempt to at least stop the bleeding.

Ryoji had hesitated at the sound of the scream, but Kaori, Marie, and Futaba caught up, and Marie called, “We can’t stop now! We have to get Minato or this trip’s been for nothing!”

Harsh, maybe, but it worked. There was another crash from below, as Nyarlathotep ripped Hamuko away from his chest and threw her. She hit Yu, sending them both to the floor in a heap, and Aigis moved immediately to guard them while they struggled to get up. But she didn’t need to worry; Nyarlathotep’s attention had been drawn from the wounded persona-users on the ground to the ones in the sky, and Kaori and Marie had their hands full trying to keep the tendrils away from Ryoji long enough to reach Minato.

After those initial moments of instability, the wings felt as instinctual as breathing, and Ryoji ducked and swerved as best he could to avoid being grabbed. He remembered this feeling in a different form, but now instead of being undercut with despair, it was all desperation and determination. Just a little longer, a little farther…

“Orpheus!” he cried as he got closer, reaching for the shadow. Minato’s shadow opened its eyes, narrow slits of gold in the dark before they widened with shock. He began to tug against his bonds, struggling to get free, and Ryoji pushed himself even faster and lifted his sword. The tendrils gave up very little resistance to the sharp edges of the blade, and the shadow dropped into his arms, grabbing on tightly.

_“Ryoji!”_

“I’ve got you. Come on, let’s go, we have to put you back together so we can finish this.” He folded his wings, angling downward as he sent them into freefall. There wasn’t a lot of time. Any minute now they could be attacked, any minute now someone could get too badly hurt, and then it would be too late. They had to _hurry_.

_“Wheel of Time!”_ Nyarlathotep roared, and the fourth cast slammed into them all with a vicious impact. It knocked Ryoji into a wild spiral, and he just barely managed to keep his grip on Minato’s shadow and spread his wings enough to prevent them from slamming into the ground. Minato’s shadow dropped to his knees beside himself, completely disregarding Philemon as he reached out to touch his face.

Tendrils lashed out at them, but Kaori, Marie, Akira, and Aigis, the only ones still standing, raced to block them. Prometheus hovered above, desperately trying to recharge enough for another healing burst. But white light flared around Minato as the shadow went translucent, flickering into the form of Orpheus for a moment before fading completely, and Minato’s eyes fluttered open.

“Mina!” Ryoji gasped, and moved to help him as he struggled to sit up.

“Welcome back,” Philemon said quietly, and Minato turned sharply to look at him, his eyes glowing Velvet-gold in the dimness of the Deepscape. His arm came up in an aborted motion, fist clenched, but then he turned away, leaning on Ryoji to shove himself to his feet and survey the battlefield.

Aigis had gone flying with a cry, smoking. She’d activated Orgia Mode sometime when they weren’t paying attention, and time had run out. Akira was barely on his feet, limping to hover protectively over Goro. And everyone else was in various states of agony, scattered around like fallen toy soldiers.

“...what do you have left?” he asked.

Ryoji shook his head. “Not much. The Seal’s taken most of it.”

“Enough for one last spell?”

“......you know that if we use this, we’re out?”

“Do you think we’ll be any help like this?” Minato laughed quietly. “I know I won’t. One summon is going to take everything I’ve got. Maybe if we had more time to recover, but...they can do it. I know they can.”

Ryoji ducked his head, smiling. “I know they can, too. Let’s do this.”

Eight years had left them a little older, a little wiser, a little more prepared to handle the weight of the world. But it didn’t change how impossible it still felt to link hands, to look up at the deity threatening the people they loved, and summon _their_ persona.

_“Messiah!”_

“No!” Nyarlathotep snarled. _“Omega Clu—”_

He was cut off as a wave of power swept over the battlefield, as Messiah appeared in all of his shining glory. Minato and Ryoji stared him down, an inhuman light in their eyes, and in one voice said, with the echo of something far greater than themselves, _“Miracle.”_

Another ripple, this time so much stronger that it was actually visible, washed over them all. The others found themselves healed, filled with energy, feeling even better than they had when the fight had started. It was like Futaba’s supercharge cranked up to a thousand, power filling them up to the brim and spilling over. The wave crashed over Nyarlathotep as well, knocking him reeling as they got back to their feet, wounds healed.

Goro stared at his leg in confusion as it held his weight, unmarred like the break had never happened. Aigis’s systems were restored, Hamuko and Yu were back up, Sho was no longer bleeding. Even Kaori and Marie were wide-eyed as it offered a boost to even their considerable power.

“Minato, Ryoji!” Yu called, as both of them dropped to their knees.

Minato shook his head. “We’re fine!” he called back. “That spell takes everything that’s left. It won’t knock him back forever; you have to go!” Messiah still hovered over them protectively, a silent, watchful guardian, and Yu backed down.

“Even with this…” Aigis began, but then Futaba’s voice filled their heads.

**“You have enough power! And you can use it like Ryoji-san did! He said we’re far enough into the Deepscape that you and your true self are one and the same! So use that and take this bastard down!”**

“Like he did?” Sho questioned.

But it was Akira who worked it out first, staring at the wings that laid limply behind Ryoji like a cloak. “It’s him… Those are his… We _are_ the same!” He threw up a hand. “ARSÈNE!”

Instead of his persona appearing above him, Akira himself seemed to shift, the normal red of Arsène’s jacket bleeding into Joker’s coat, the heeled shoes replaced with knife-heeled boots, and the black-feathered wings arching elegantly from his back. 

“Holy shit…” Hamuko breathed, vocalizing what all of them were thinking. But it made them realize what was happening, and as Nyarlathotep started to recover from the disorientation, all of them reacted in kind.

“PERSONA!”

The power thrumming through them seemed to reach a peak as they stood to face the Crawling Chaos once again, one with their personas in a way they’d never imagined. Marie, in Izanami’s armor, brandished a trident with a flourish. “This is pretty cool, for being a human.”

Yu and Sho, in the complementary long coats and helmets of their personas, nodded in agreement. Aigis examined Athena’s armor in awe, and Hamuko held up a handful of fire with a grin, wearing her Orpheus’s blue and silver colors.

And Goro stepped up beside Akira wearing Mordred’s armor, a smile on his face beneath the helmet and sword in hand. “I’m a knight for real, now, aren’t I?”

“In shining armor,” Akira quipped. “I doubt they can maintain this indefinitely. Let’s do this.”

It was obvious from the moment they charged that the tide of the battle had turned. They weren’t desperately trying to hang on, dodging attacks and praying to land another hit. Now they fought with the Universe’s power backing them, and they threw spells and attacks like it was second nature. The Crawling Chaos didn’t seem to know what to do with eight overpowered persona-users, but his sheer strength meant that he was still holding his own, even if the fight was more even now.

Yu and Marie were breathtaking, throwing lightning like they were born to it, while Aigis surged in like an avenging angel. Goro’s armor shined in the glow from the lightning, and Kaori’s scythe flashed like a streak of moonlight.

Hamuko cast agidyne, throwing a wave of fire over a swath of the tendrils so that they shriveled into nothing, then looked over. “It’s going to take all of our power if we’re going to drive him back! Akira-kun, why aren’t you using your ultimate?”

“I…” Akira began. Hovering in midair with Arsène’s wings, he blocked a swipe with wide eyes. “I haven’t...since…” Satanael wasn’t like Arsène. He didn’t speak to Akira the way the gentleman thief did. Akira hadn’t even summoned him on his own, that first time. He’d had all of Tokyo behind him. But maybe now, with Minato’s power backing him…

“Hurry up,” Sho insisted, “because that bastard isn’t going to help us, and we’re not going home otherwise!” They’d lost sight of Philemon somewhere in the chaos; there was no way of telling if he was even still there.

Akira fluttered back, only half-aware of Goro and Kaori moving to guard him. Turning his attention inwards, he looked for that feeling from Christmas, for the demon at the core of his soul. And with less effort than he thought, he found it.

_Little one who would slay gods to protect what you believe in… I am glad that you have called on me again._

It was ironic, to think that his persona was a lord of demons, when they had ventured down here to save one half of Messiah. But it felt right, reaching out to Satanael, and Akira felt Arsène hum contentedly before retreating, allowing Satanael to take over. The feathered wings on his back gave way to three pairs of batlike ones instead, as the silver-grey uniform covered him from head to toe. He was barely aware of the golden horns in his peripheral vision, more focused on the oversized knife that he was now wielding, and the fact that he was about ten feet tall instead of his usual, reasonable height.

“Damn,” Hamuko swore quietly, somewhere in the background. “He makes a really nice demon.”

“You continue to struggle pointlessly!” Nyarlathotep boomed. “Turn yourself into a demon if you must; it only emphasizes that evil still lurks in the hearts of all humanity! And as long as that evil exists, so too do I!”

“If it’s evil to protect the people important to me, than so be it,” Akira growled. 

“We don’t need to destroy you. We just need to beat you back until you learn that you and things like you can’t keep _screwing with our lives!_ ” Goro snapped.

_“Give up,”_ an unfamiliar voice intoned from behind them, and even though no one looked, they all knew instinctively that it was Messiah, speaking where the halves of his soul could not. _“Give up, and return to your stalemate. You failed. Humanity’s chosen were too strong, in the end.”_

**_“NO!”_** Nyarlathotep lashed out with a barrage of powerful spells, only to recoil in shock when none of the persona-users so much as flinched. “What?!”

A faint green shimmer glinted off of all of them, and farther back, almost eclipsed by the glow from Messiah, Futaba was hovering. She was covered in her own armor, crisscrossed by Prometheus’s trails of neon color, expression determined as she maintained the guard around all of them. Its usual use as a last resort was completely overwritten by the surge of power she’d gained, and even her eyes glowed with it.

“Impossible!” Nyarlathotep howled, striking at them physically instead. Akira dodged around him, coming up from behind and slamming the massive knife through his torso. He caught one of the arms, bracing against the deafening screams of the faces that covered in, and shouted, “Come on!”

Kaori went for the other arm, helping to hold the main bulk of him still. With a last, desperate cry of triumph the others charged, and under swords and spears, fire and lightning, the Crawling Chaos fell at last.

His form seemed to flicker as he faded out, flashing between monstrous shapes they could barely comprehend, and human forms they half-recognized. But then he was gone, and all of them were safely back on the ground, barely willing to believe that it was finally over.

Behind them, Messiah gestured, and the power surge drained away, taking their armor and wings and weapons with it. All of them felt a wave of exhaustion pass over them, and Yu laughed weakly. “I guess we should have expected that fusing with our personas would take a lot out of us, even with help.”

Goro suddenly wobbled with a cry, sinking to the ground as his leg gave out. When Aigis and Hamuko staggered over to see if he was okay, he nodded, gritting his teeth and forcing a smile. “I understand now,” he said. “The magic thing. They forced it to heal too fast and it re-broke.” A pained laugh escaped. “At least it didn’t break skin this time…”

“How are we supposed to get out of here…?” Sho sounded like he was trying to be annoyed, but was just too wiped out for it. “He can’t walk like that.”

Apparently on the same wavelength, they all looked over at Philemon, who had reappeared near Minato and Ryoji with a warm smile. “I knew that I could count on you,” he said. “While Nyarlathotep is not gone, we have returned to our stalemate. I chose my Wild Cards well. Humanity is in safe hands.”

Minato and Ryoji stared at him. Lacking the strength to get to their feet, Messiah moved in their stead, obeying their hearts’ whim and sending a glowing fist directly into the face of the embodiment of goodness. On impact, Messiah burst into a glimmer of light and vanished, and Philemon lifted a hand to his skewed mask, his eyes stormy blue-grey as he looked them over.

“Leave us _alone_ ,” Minato rasped out. “You’ve done enough.”

Philemon just looked at him for a long moment, and then bowed his head. “I understand. For what it is worth, I am proud of you.” And then he was gone, and Minato scanned the battlefield, where everyone was struggling and failing to recover enough to move. He could tell his vision was going blurry at the edges, and grabbed anxiously for Ryoji’s sleeve.

“W-We… We have to get them home…”

Ryoji looked and sounded about as wrecked as he felt, but his hands were warm as he reached up to cup Minato’s face. “I just got you back, dearest. It’s too soon for you to start worrying. We’ll be fine, I promise you. We’ll be fine.”

Minato wanted to argue, wanted to object that they’d come down here for him, so it was his responsibility to make sure they were okay. But the words just couldn’t manage to transfer from his mind to his tongue, bogged down by exhaustion, and he felt his eyes slipping shut without his permission. The last thing he was aware of was seeing Kaori some distance away, hand over her heart and speaking quickly. There was a burst of warmth, like the sun had decided to shine, impossibly, in this place at the bottom of the Sea, and then he knew nothing at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [The song that sparked the idea for basically everything with Nyar in the first place](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLcOrCP0P6s)  
> [Boss Fight Pt. 1 + Wings](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEgjc7a2Jx0)  
> [Boss Fight Pt. 2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pnf1lPfgoU). Finishing with a classic!
> 
> On the one hand, I feel so validated by Super Smash Brothers letting Joker cast a base-level spell without summoning his persona. Like, wow, I’m canon. Sort of. XD But also, god damn it SSB, I have been planning this boss fight for _months now_. This boss fight is the mental image that I wrecked the wedding for. And you just _stole_ my wings with your trailer literally six hours after I wrote that part of the chapter. 
> 
> So, I’m valid, but I also didn’t manage to write fast enough to get the chapter out before I became even more valid. XD
> 
> (Even though they have the same ultimate in canon, Hamuko’s version of Orpheus Telos is blue and silver because Mina’s is red, and I wanted them to draw from each other’s color schemes for it. It seemed fitting.)
> 
> Miracle is something I've been contemplating for ages. If we're talking in terms of game mechanics, it's the all-SP counterpart to the Great Seal's all-HP, but it has a little more of a severe effect because you can't restore that SP until the end of the battle. It's basically a desperation move; it wipes them out to power up everyone else: full heal, full SP restore, supercharge, all-kaja, etc.
> 
> Next chapter: I guess we have to get out of here, huh?


	19. November 22nd, 2017

_“—ato? Hey, guys, I think he moved!”_

_“Oh shit, he’s waking up! Someone call Mochizuki!”_

_“Sho, can you maybe not curse while Nanako is right here?”_

_“Onii-chan, don’t worry about that, we have to get Ryo-niichan!”_

_“Figures as soon as Hamuko-san talks him into going and getting food, this guy wakes up.”_

_“Uncle Minato, can you hear us?”_

_“Shhh, let him come to on his own…”_

Minato blinked, staring up at the harsh fluorescent lights in the ceiling with bleary eyes. For a second, he had no idea what had happened, and then it all rushed back in a wave. Panicking, filled with anger in the Sea, and then a vast darkness, and then Philemon, a miracle… Ryoji, like an angel……

“Where…?” he croaked, and Yu stepped into his line of sight, helping him sit up a little and passing him a glass of water. He took it with trembling hands, downing a few long sips before looking around the room. Sho was there, leaned against the far wall, and beside him the kids – Morgana, Nanako, Thalassa, and Lavenza – were watching him with wide eyes. Kaori was sitting on the other hospital bed, kicking her feet with a grin, while Hemera stood beside her, a soft smile on her face.

“You’re in the hospital,” Yu explained. “That spell wiped you out pretty good, on top of being in rough shape from being possessed and dragged around the Sea.”

“What about the others?” His instinct was to get up, but his limbs still felt like lead. Now that his vision was clearer, though, he could see the bandage around Sho’s forehead, and the way the others were watching him anxiously, to see how he was. “How did we get here?”

“Everybody made it out fine,” Kaori said. “Goro-kun’s leg re-broke because it healed too fast, and Sho had kind of a concussion. Geeze, and Akira-kun was basically a lump for a while, there. You can tell he’s the youngest; fusing with that demon lord of his wiped him almost as bad as Miracle wiped you and Ryoji. As for how we got out…” She jerked her thumb in Hemera’s direction. “I _might_ have called big sis for help. She and Aether showed up to help me drag all of you out of there.”

That explained the out-of-place feeling of sunlight. Minato forced himself up a little more to look at Hemera directly. “Thank you,” he said, heartfelt. “I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

“You’re part of the family, now,” Hemera said gently. “Think nothing of it. Anything for someone that makes Thanatos so happy. And I think Thalassa would have been very disappointed if her new uncle and his friends hadn’t made it.”

He looked around, and he hated how pathetic he sounded when he asked, “Where’s Ryoji?”

“We’ve been taking turns waiting for you to wake up,” Yu said. “Hamuko finally talked Ryoji into going and getting food. Elizabeth, Shinjiro, Aigis, and Mitsuru are with them, too.”

“I’m texting Hamuko-san,” Morgana chimed. “They’ll be up here soon.”

Relief filled Minato’s face, but quickly faded away. “I…”

“What’s wrong?” Lavenza asked.

“I… I’m sorry,” Minato said. “This is all my fault. I let him get to me, I let myself get so angry, and I… They all had to come after me; they could have _died!_ ”

Kaori snorted. “I think you underestimate how much these idiots love you. Not that it was easy, especially when they all decided to stare at Cthulhu and start losing their marbles and spouting nonsense. But I know for an absolute fact that none of them regret going down there. More of them would have gone, if we’d let them.” She hopped up from her perch, flashing him a grin. “I’m gonna head out. It’s going to get pretty crowded in here once they all start rushing in to smother you with affection. But try not to feel guilty, okay? You’re fine. And you’re safe. So, take care of my brother, yeah~?”

Hemera, too, bid her farewells, scooping up Thalassa on her way out. Yu and Sho decided to take Nanako to track down Marie to get themselves food as well. Morgana and Lavenza hung back to keep an eye on things, and Lavenza came over to take his hand and smile. “I’m glad you’re okay, Minato-san. I didn’t want to lose you.”

“I’m sorry I worried you,” he replied, squeezing her hand. “I didn’t want to leave.”

At that moment, the door burst open and Ryoji came through in a blur of yellow, diverting his path to narrowly avoid hitting Lavenza as he came to a stop beside the bed. “I came as soon as I heard I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up of course this happens the second I leave I shouldn’t have—”

Minato reached up, yanking him down into a kiss to muffle the litany of apologies. When he pulled back, Ryoji was quiet, eyes welling up.

Behind him, the rest of the Velvet attendants crowded into the room, wearing normal clothes instead of their uniforms and matching happy expressions. Elizabeth rushed him immediately, while Theodore and Margaret hung back, smiling with relief. Hamuko was hanging off of Shinjiro, a huge grin on her face, and Aigis waited quietly beside her. And Mitsuru just folded her arms, watching with amusement as Minato tried to fend off Elizabeth from crushing him in a hug.

When she finally had a clear path, she made her way over to the side of the bed, nodding to Minato. “I’m glad that you’re okay.”

“I am, too. I’m sorry...” Minato said softly.

“Stop apologizing.” Mitsuru’s voice was stern, but her expression was gentle. “You were taken advantage of by something so much greater than all of us. We’re all just glad that you’re safe.”

Minato chuckled, one hand safely held in Ryoji’s. “...I would say ‘sorry’, but that would be apologizing for apologizing,” he mumbled. Another thought struck him, and he looked up at her. “Are Kurusu-kun and Akechi-kun here? Like, in a room? I want to see them. I...can’t imagine what this did to Akechi-kun.”

Mitsuru nodded. “They’re here. Give me a little while, though. The nurses looked a bit annoyed when I walked by the station; apparently our youngest Wild Cards have been causing the staff some problems. Let me check on them first, and then you certainly will be able to go.”

“Good,” Ryoji quipped. “I’ve got something I want to ask him, too.”

“Aw, don’t make fun of him too much,” Hamuko laughed.

“...am I missing something?” Shinjiro asked, looking confused.

“Let’s just say our little ace might finally think of himself as part of the family,” she giggled, and Minato squeezed Ryoji’s hand.

Somehow, things had turned out okay. It really was a miracle.

***

When Mitsuru stepped into the other hospital room, she really wasn’t surprised by the sight waiting for her. Trying to be courteous of their comfort, she had made sure that the staff was aware to put Akira and Goro into a double room while they recovered. But apparently it was a semi-fruitless decision, because Akira had found his way into Goro’s bed anyway, curled up close against him and sound asleep.

“The nurses aren’t very happy with you,” she said quietly, as Goro looked up with wary eyes.

“If you’re here to lecture us, don’t. We’ve already heard it all,” he huffed, equally quiet, his grip tightening protectively on Akira.

Mitsuru raised an eyebrow. “The way I understand it after stopping at the nurse’s station, you both have frightened off two nurses, Kurusu-kun tried to attack a third, and you threatened the head nurse,” she said, leaning one hand on her hip. “Do you want to explain, or am I going to assume that you both are displaying a tendency for violent outbursts after your ordeal?”

“They scared Akira,” Goro said, as if that explained everything.

“They are trying to help you recover.” She looked pointedly at the shape beneath the blanket, the outline of the cast that stretched from Goro’s right foot all the way to just below his knee, then at the IV that was thankfully still connected to Akira’s arm. “They’re professionals, Akechi-kun.”

That prompted a furious glare. “Those nurses are far from professional,” Goro snapped. “The first two attempted to physically return Akira to his own bed despite his protests, the third came at him with a needle and seemed oblivious to the fact that he almost had a panic attack, and when the head nurse returned with a different needle and insinuated that I could hold him still for her, I told her to fuck off and get out before I took it from her and stabbed her with it.” There was no remorse in his tone, just bitter anger. “He’s been through quite enough. Do you know how much effort it’s taken just to keep him from trying to claw that IV out of his hand? If I wasn’t hurt, I’d have carried him out of here already.”

“The one of those shots was a fresh dose of painkillers to be added to the IV,” Mitsuru said. “Surely she explained that.”

“Oh, I heard it, certainly. But all that Akira saw was someone coming towards the bed with a needle. He didn’t hear anything else.” Goro shifted just slightly, settling Akira more comfortably against him. “I didn’t realize his reaction would be this bad, but he’s been uncomfortable since we woke up here. They had to disconnect the heart monitor because the noise was causing a feedback loop of anxiety.”

“I did my best to make sure you were in the same room.”

Goro nodded. “I appreciate that, but… He…” He hesitated, looking thoughtful, then said, “He was drugged and tortured, during that first period where he was arrested. So I can understand his phobia.”

That explained a lot of things. Mitsuru felt a pang of sympathy for the dark-haired boy; she knew they had beaten him, but she hadn’t realized his fear was so severe that it extended to hospitals, or else she would have gotten the staff to be more considerate. “He’s going to need those painkillers, and the nurses informed me that they want to do a blood test to see if his system has stabilized. I won’t approve of anyone trying to force him, but if you could try to talk him through it, it would help.”

“I can try, but it would help a lot more if you called Takemi-san,” Goro murmured. He fixed her with a searching look. “You have an awful lot of authority here. Is this some kind of Shadow Operatives hospital?”

“Privately funded, with much of those funds coming from generous donations from the Kirijo Group and Nanjo Group,” Mitsuru said. “The hospital is public, but there is a specific contingent of staff that are employed by me and are aware to stand by in case of things like this.”

“I see.” Goro glanced down as Akira stirred in his arms, dropping a kiss as best he could on Akira’s forehead. “Are you all right?”

“Ihurteverywhere,” Akira slurred, and Goro chuckled.

“That’s because you fought off the nurse that was bringing you more painkillers,” he said gently. Akira groaned and tried to burrow deeper into his arms, and he shook his head. “I know the people here aren’t Takemi-san, but do you really believe that I would let anyone hurt you? I’m not completely useless with a broken leg, you know.”

Before Akira could answer, he finally noticed Mitsuru and huddled deeper into the blanket. All of his usual fire was extinguished, smothered under exhaustion and soreness. “I’m not moving,” he said, but there was no bite to his words.

“I’m not going to make you,” Mitsuru assured him. “I would...actually like to apologize. I didn’t know that being here would upset you so much.”

“It’s...not your fault,” Akira muttered. “I’m trying. I know they’re trying to help, but…”

Goro hushed him with a hand combing through his hair. “It’s all right. You’re doing fine.”

“You are,” Mitsuru agreed, “but I would appreciate if both of you wouldn’t threaten the nurses. They really do need to do a blood test, Kurusu-kun. You were in very bad shape for a while there.”

Akira was quiet, but he shivered against Goro, who promised, “I’m not going anywhere. You can stay right here.”

“...okay.”

Mitsuru went to get one of the nurses, who wasn’t thrilled about having to go back and deal with the two Thieves again. But once Mitsuru explained, briefly, the reason for Akira’s adverse reaction, she was a little more sympathetic.

“Hello, Kurusu-kun,” she said when they returned, a reassuring smile on her face. “I’m sorry if we scared you earlier. We’re just going to take a quick blood sample, and then I’ll get you some more painkillers. That’s all.”

Mitsuru watched as Goro shifted them to be a little more upright, his lips pressed to Akira’s temple. She wasn’t sure what Goro said to him, voice low and soft against his ear, but whatever it was, it worked miracles. Akira kept his eyes shut, tucked into Goro’s neck and trembling, but he didn’t fight when his sleeve was gently pulled up and the needle slipped into the crook of his elbow.

When it was over and the painkillers had been administered, Akira looked a little more lucid, glancing around the hospital room searchingly. There was a clock, but no calendar, and the TV mounted on the wall was off. “I haven’t asked yet because I felt like garbage, but what day is it?”

Goro perked up as well, realizing that he hadn’t asked the date either, more worried about his leg and Akira. Mitsuru stepped aside to let the nurse out of the room and answered, “It’s the twenty-second of November. You came out of the Deepscape on the twentieth, and you in particular have been in and out of consciousness for two days. Your guardian was notified as soon as you returned, and from what I understand, he’s cleared things up with your school.”

“We were down there for two weeks?” Akira asked incredulously.

“The deeper into meta-space that you go as a physical being, the further time distorts, at least according to Kaori-san.”

Goro frowned, letting out a deep sigh and then poking Akira gently in the ribs. “Don’t make a habit of this.”

“Of what?”

“Of getting the hell beaten out of you on the twentieth of November. I really don’t want this to become an annual event.”

Akira stared up at him in shock, and then, for the first time since he’d woken up in the hospital, started laughing. He ended up sprawling out in Goro’s lap in a giggling heap, and even Mitsuru smiled, grateful that they were recovering just fine.

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to know what Sakura Sojiro would have done if they weren’t.

***

Eventually it was determined that Minato needed his rest, and he was left alone with Ryoji and Elizabeth as everyone else went to make their calls to anyone who wasn’t at the hospital, to let them know that he was okay. Even Margaret gathered up Lavenza and Theodore, promising to tell Igor, Belladonna, and Nameless that he was all right. Morgana was the last to leave, lingering in the doorway like he wanted to ask something, but eventually he, too, headed out, pulling up Sojiro’s number on his phone as he went.

And so then there were three, with Ryoji sitting on the bed beside Minato, and Elizabeth sprawled on the bed that had been Ryoji’s.

“You really had wings,” Minato murmured. “You used the Avatar’s power, for me. Ryoji…”

“I wasn’t giving you up without a fight,” Ryoji said. “You would have done the same for me. You already had.”

Minato leaned against him. “It all comes full-circle in the end.” Lidded eyes drifted to Elizabeth, and he hesitated before asking, “What about Philemon?”

“I fear that I lost a wager,” Elizabeth replied with exaggerated disappointment. “I was quite certain that it would be little Akira-kun, living up to his legacy as a Trickster! But I can only take solace in the fact that none of my siblings won, either, because no one bet that you would both punch him together.”

Ryoji shook with silent laughter, and Minato spluttered for a moment before managing, “No, Elizabeth, is he _angry with us?_ I told him to leave and hit him; he must be furious.”

Elizabeth hummed. “Master Philemon spoke to Master Igor after you were brought back. We are here by his permission,” she said. “He...admitted that he probably went about things the wrong way, confronting all of you like that. It only came off as antagonistic.”

“No, really?” Minato’s voice was utterly deadpan, and Elizabeth giggled.

“Indeed.” But then she sat up, wrapping her arms around her knees and picking at a loose thread in the hem of her pants. “He...acknowledged that we are not the dolls that we were created as. That we have life beyond the scope of our duties. And...he has said that we can go back to how things were, so long as our first loyalty is always to the Velvet Room.”

“He did?!” Ryoji gasped, as Minato’s mouth fell open.

Elizabeth nodded. “I feel as though he simply thinks it is no longer worth arguing about. So long as we fulfill our duties, and the Room remains under my master’s control… You went into the Deepscape and defeated the Crawling Chaos on his own turf. I don’t think there is anything that could shake our faith in you now.”

Minato laughed, knowing that if he didn’t he would cry from relief. “He could have at least come and apologized for ruining my wedding.”

“I think,” Elizabeth said with a hint of of smug satisfaction, “that he was afraid of being hit again.”

“At the very least...tell him thank you, for me.” Regardless of how much of this had been Philemon’s fault, he had shown up in the end to help. Minato could be grateful for that, even if it was just a move to counter Nyarlathotep’s.

Eventually Mitsuru came back to inform them that Akira and Goro were awake for visitors, and Minato and Ryoji made their way down to the other room, finding both of them squeezed into one hospital bed. It was cute, and when Akira sat up and exclaimed, “You’re okay!”, Minato smiled.

“We are. I’m glad you’re okay, too.” He walked over to take the chair beside the bed. “Goro-kun, I want to apologize. I’m...not completely aware of what he said to you, but I’m certain it was nothing good.”

“It wasn’t you,” Goro said firmly. “That bastard wasn’t you. I...know that isn’t how you think of me.”

Ryoji grinned. “We think of you about the same as you think of us, apparently.”

There were a few seconds where Goro looked puzzled, trying to figure out what he meant, and then to their great amusement he started turning pink. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“We all heard you say it. Hamu-chan’s really happy.”

“You heard wrong, Ryoji-san.”

“I don’t think he did,” Akira said, chiming in to make things worse with a smirk. “You did scream it loud enough to affect even the eldritch abomination.”

The flush was spreading to Goro’s ears. “It was a...a calculated move...to try to throw him off enough for Ryoji-san to act. And it worked, didn’t it?”

“Mhm. Sure.”

Minato didn’t laugh, but his expression was fond. “Regardless of why you said it, it doesn’t change that we reciprocate the sentiment. And Mitsuru says that we should be able to go home as soon as this evening, once they’ve confirmed that I’m okay, gotten you some crutches, and double-checked Akira-kun’s prescriptions. Does that sound okay?”

Still red, with emotion still threatening to overwhelm him, Goro nodded.

“Yeah. Let’s go home.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Wednesday!
> 
> Atlus please you need to chill I can't handle being this valid all at once. XDDD Human Morgana's eyes are so pretty just like I thought, though. And I'm hoarse from screaming because of [certain things](https://twilightknight17.tumblr.com/post/184414686294) but...yeah.
> 
> I probably worried some people, but everyone made it out of the Deepscape safely. We are good. And as of right now, we're pretty much done. There will be an update Saturday, and an update Monday, and then the canon part of Hours is officially over. I'm...a little overwhelmed, actually. It's weird to say that out loud.
> 
> Next chapter: "All that I wanted was a few more hours, and I ended up with so much more."


	20. December 3rd, 2017

It was December 3rd, the world was not ending, and Minato and Ryoji were wide awake.

Midnight was crisp and cool in Iwatodai, the full moon casting soft, pale light over the pair sitting on top of the play equipment, two halves of a soul comfortably settled together. It had been a busy week and a half. Mitsuru had called daily to make sure they weren’t overexerting themselves. Goro was catching up on his schoolwork and complaining irritably about the crutches, even though Minato had promised that as soon as he felt fully recovered, he’d nudge the broken leg along with dia. 

Also, there had been contractors in and out for a few days now, since there was still the matter of the exploded wall between the kitchen and the dining room. After a few days of discussion, several catalogs of home goods, and at least an hour of agonizing over color palettes, they’d decided to just redo the kitchen while they were at it, and get all-new dining room furniture and dishes.

“You know,” Ryoji said thoughtfully, “I think this is the first time we’ve really redone a whole room. The dorm is pretty much the same as when everyone lived there, otherwise.”

Minato hummed, leaning more heavily against his shoulder. “Maybe we need to change more,” he murmured. “Things are so different from when they started. Maybe it’s time to just full-scale change as much as we can. Paint our room. Redo Goro’s room. Add those extra outlets in the game room.”

“Anything but green, dearest,” Ryoji quipped, and Minato muffled a laugh into his coat.

They were quiet for a while, looking up at the moon, and then Ryoji laughed softly. “It’s still kind of unbelievable that we made it here. That you married me. We have a kid, sort of. We have our whole lives.”

“Is it really surprising?” Minato examined his rings where they sat around his left ring finger, a tiny smile quirking his lips. “You’re the one that chased me. And proposed.”

“You didn’t have to say yes,” Ryoji countered, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “I was running on hope and sheer nerve most of the time. Why would you want to be Death’s soulmate? It was a long shot from the start.”

“And I told you,” Minato said, nudging an elbow into his side, “you didn’t choose what you are. It’s _who_ you are that matters, Arisato Ryoji. And who you are is my husband. The one person that I love more than anything.”

The scarf wrapped around Minato’s neck wasn’t as vibrant as it used to be, but it was still soft and warm, and he hugged the ends of it close to his chest. “All that I wanted was a few more hours, and I ended up with so much more. I truly am lucky. And I was wrong, back then. It will never be enough. I will take every hour I can get, from now on, too.”

Ryoji hugged him closer, stealing one of the ends of the scarf to wind it around his own neck. “I’ve changed my mind, I think. We should go on a honeymoon after all. I do still kind of want to go to Italy.”

“You’ll have to do all the talking,” Minato murmured. “I’m decent at English, but not much else.”

“I think they speak a little bit of English in Italy, but no worries. You’ve got your universal translator right here.” Ryoji nuzzled his ear. _“Sei tutto ciò che ho sempre desiderato. Ti amo più di ogni altra cosa. Il mio bellissimo, bellissimo Universo.”_

“What does that mean?” Minato asked, shifting until he could look up at him.

“It means, ‘Can you show me how to get to the hotel? I took a wrong turn and got lost.’”

“No it doesn’t.”

“How do you know? You can’t speak Italian.”

“Part of it sounded like ‘Universe’, which means you were talking about me.”

“Not necessarily. Some languages have the same word for different things. Don’t ever accept a ‘gift’ from someone in Germany.”

Minato pouted at him, and Ryoji couldn’t stop himself from leaning down to kiss it away. They had gotten so miraculously lucky. Even with everything that had happened, conflicts and crises and more battles against godlike embodiments than they could count on one hand, everything had fallen into place in the end. A full circle, or maybe a spring, coming back to where it began and then continuing upwards into the future.

There would always be trials. Always be challenges. But it was nothing that they couldn’t handle, all of them, together.

It wasn’t a happily ever after, but it was a bright future, regardless.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, guys. We're finally at the end of this thing. I hope you enjoyed my over-indulgent boss fight insanity. XD The original plan was not to wreck the wedding, but I think it all turned out pretty good, and I had fun!
> 
> The final canon Hours update will be Monday, and it will be the last part chronologically, too. It's...very strange to think that this is it, considering how long I've been working on this, but I'm finally here. So, assuming you all know me pretty well by this point, expect a big sappy author's note on Monday to go with the last fic. ^_^;
> 
> See you then. <3


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